OK, here's the bad. Please scroll down to today's previous post for the good.
The destruction of the squash/pumpkin bed has begun. Although everything was still bearing, I could no longer look at the powdery mildew. By tomorrow, the squash patch will be no more.
Can you see that little dead twig in the barrel? That was one of the new blueberry bushes I bought from Wal*Mart. (Note to self: do not buy plants at Wal-mart). I fear the second bush has also expired, but I can't see it. It has been consumed by a monster nasturtium.
Eight of my 12 determinate tomatoes expired this month. It began like this....
Then progressed to this....
And ended up like this.
Four of the eight plants were in self watering buckets. After pulling the top section out of the watering bucket, I can see why they have grown sickly. Just look at that tangle of roots that were filling the reservoir.
And see how root bound they had become in just 2-1/2 months.
Those that were grown in non-self-watering buckets of the same size fared much better. The one on the right is nearly roof high.
As are both of these.
And, finally, the real heart breaker. I watched and checked these melons daily. They never did slip from the vine, so I assumed they were not yet ripe. Overnight, this is what happened. I have since learned to smell the bottom of the melon and watch for a very slight color change. Even then, the last two I picked were nearly too ripe.
I feel your pain about the melons. Of the seven cantaloupes we watered and took care of all summer, we only got to eat one. All the others were way over ripe and rotting on the inside. I thought they'd turn orange-ish, but they stayed green all the way through. Next time I'll know better.
ReplyDeleteOh no. How sad about those melons. I had no clue that they split open like that. I figured they would be like squash and just stick around until they rot out.
ReplyDeleteTomatoes are such a pita to grow. They may be worth it but wouldn't it be nice to have one that just grows and never gets sick?
Kathy, we have eaten three, one of each variety I grew. The first was perfect. I actually smelled it while picking beans, tracked it down, and it slipped from the vine as I lifted it. One of another variety was fine one day, and had begun to split the next day. It was edible and really sweet, but a bit over ripe. The third variety looked fine, was perfectly ripe...and had no flavor at all. One bite, and it went into the compost.
ReplyDelete********
Daphne, me too. See my comment above.
I do have a bed of indeterminate tomatoes that is growing like that. It's such a jungle, it's hard to find the ripe tomatoes! I've done all the wrong things with that bed.....overhead watering, over crowding, no pruning, yet they are my best and most prolific tomatoes! You'll see them when I do the September Garden photos.
Oh man, hate that happened to your melons. I just came in from pulling and thinning. I have never intentionally pulled a flowering plant, but I cant stand the dead leaves, mildew, rust, whatever it is they have. I'm getting up my nerve to be even more ruthless tomorrow. The compost pile is growing in leaps and bounds!
ReplyDeleteMissyM, They are GONE! I ruthlessly pulled all the pumpkins and squash from the edge of the garden, so now I have but one lonely zucchini plant in another area. It was hard to pull the butternut squash, which was still loaded with unripened fruit. I saved a couple that were starting to turn color. I don't know if they will continue to ripen or not.
ReplyDeleteI didn't compost the vines, they had so much mildew I just bagged them for the trash :-(
Oh Granny! The carnage! I feel so bad about those melons. They look like they were so close to being super yummy and then took a big fat overnight nosedive. And those are some roots in those planters! Yikes! Who'd have thought that could happen that fast!!
ReplyDeleteGreat pics and a great post. Thanks so much for participating in GBDD!
Kate, that's exactly what happened! It was a tragic loss, they are the sweetest melons I've ever tasted. I saved the seeds though, and I will certainly grow them next year. I'll maybe be a bit smarter about picking them at the correct time!
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting GBDD!
This post makes me wish I had more death and destruction to share. I need to get out in the garden and make a better effort for next month. It seems the vegetable garden is where most of the bad stuff happens. All I have is one tomato plant and one pumpkin plant and lots of flowers. This was a fun read.
ReplyDeleteThose bucket grown tom's look great, they are huge! Here is what Johnny's indicates as a ripe melon:
ReplyDeleteRIPENESS: Examine the smallish long-stemmed leaf attached to the vine at the same point as the fruit. At ripeness, this leaf is pale. Orange fruit rind color indicates overripeness.
I have a two melons on that look like they might ripen in time, about the size of a tennis ball now. Unfortunately it looks like the melons may have blight too.
Oh, Donna....never wish for it! It will happen on its own, no need for wishing ;-)
ReplyDelete********
Dan, notice the green one, it didn't have a bit of orange or yellow on it! That's the Savor F1. The Petit Gris gets a light golden color. I've spotted about a half dozen more, all golf to baseball sizes. The vines are beginning to wander into the strawberry patch, I should have trellised them. Next year they will go where the squash patch was this year. They'll have lots of room there.
I think they mean the interior rind should be a green/yellow color like in the photo:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/subcategory.aspx?category=1&subcategory=436
Can't exactly start cutting them open on the vine to see if they are ripe though :-) I have heard they are really hard to tell when they are ripe. The savor f1 melon really is a beautiful looking melon, split or not!
Dan, I found both of them incredibly good...very, very sweet. I would have difficulty telling them apart in a taste test. I did save seeds from both, but the Savor F1 probably won't grow true. The Petit Gris might, though. If they crossed with each other, whatever grows would have to be delicious! I'm anxious for next year to get here!
ReplyDeleteSo sad about the melons :-(
ReplyDeleteDeath and destruction everywhere! It speaks to how bad the tomato infections were this year that even your hot and sunny garden got struck with it. I am starting to wonder if we have a new and more virulent strain of blight that has emerged.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame about the melons, but at least you had some harvest prior to the losses.
I'm sorry to hear about your melons. But thank you posting your experience! All of this will definitely come in handy when I try to grow some charantais melons next year!
ReplyDeleteAmy & Thomas, it was sad to lose them, but I see another half dozen on the vines. Maybe I'll get lucky and the weather will remain hot enough for them to ripen. I'll consider my earlier failure a learning experience.
ReplyDelete********
KitspFG, this is the first year I've had blight on my tomatoes like this. It was almost a blessing in disguise for me, as I don't know what I'd have done with more tomatoes than I already have! The remaining 18 plants are beginning to get their second breath now, so I'm not finished with them yet!
By the way, I've not been able to leave comments on your blog lately. When I sign in, it takes me to a blank page. I just want you to know I am reading and appreciating it!
They've just had an Elvis thing on our TV and they were playing "Heartbreak hotel" - looks like they could have been reporting from your garden. gardens are like children (and puppies) aren't they? Sources of laughter and of tears.
ReplyDeleteHeskie, I can't be too heartbroken, as I've had many more successes than failures this year. If I'd had a bigger harvest, I could have fed the entire town!
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about your squash and pumpkin’s powdery mildew. I am just starting to see it on my zucchini and yellow summer squash. Also I am so sorry about your melons. Wow, they just exploded like that?!
ReplyDeleteYour tomato leaf looks like EARLY blight. I get this every year in my garden towards the end of the season when the plants are stressed and soil splash has been an issue.
I do want to express my gratitude that you shared the 5-gal SWC tomato situation. Earlier in the season, I was convinced that I would have success with tomatoes next year if I used these. However, even with my 18-gallon SWC, I found I had to fill twice a day when the weather got warm. It seemed that they were always thirsty. Late Blight ended my experiment so I don’t know if the tomatoes would have succeeded. However, I am beginning to believe that if the water is available to the tomatoes, they will gorge on it.
I will be watching Raybo and EG on GardenWeb closely over the next few months to see what they have learned about SWCs and soils used.
Rachel, Yes, the melons cracked open like that overnight. My neighbor's son-in-law was looking them over the day before, and we both came to the conclusion they weren't yet ripe!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was early blight on the toms, but some of the fruits turned to brown mush overnight. I've never had that happen with early blight, so I figured it could be late blight.
As to the SWC, EG, Sinfonian and Raybo all seem to have good luck with them, and I've seen beautiful ones grown in the SWC buckets. Didn't work for me, but the single buckets with a really big hole cut in the bottoms are working great. I water them with a hose about every two days (I was filling the SWCs twice a day) and there is no splash onto the leaves, it's so easy to dump in a gallon of fish emulsion once in a while....I will probably fill all my buckets next year. At least the roots have some soil to grab onto when they grow out the bottom of the bucket.
AG - Sorry you are having problems commenting on my blog. I thought that was fixed actually. However, if you are still having problems you can comment as a non member - just make sure you are not logged in and then just use the comment form and enter your user name and then supply the email (won't publish it) and you should be good to go. I will put another trouble ticket in to the site hosting service since it obviously is NOT fixed!
ReplyDeleteSorry about your melons, but I guess one gardeners loss is some good info gained.
ReplyDelete