A soil-less mix can be composed of a mixture of different things,like Pine bark mulch,Coir,Perlite,Pumice,Peat moss and Rice hulls,etc.
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Interesting, the tomatoes look so healthy.
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@SoCalGardenNut
Like @Bradybb said the media has no real soil in it. We follow Mel’s mix using roughly 1/3, 1/3 1/3 of
- Peat/Promix/Berger as base
- store bought compost like composted cow manure and mushroom compost
- soil amendment like rice hulls, perlite, vermiculite
We also add worm casting, Down to Earth Bi-Live 5-4-2 at 1/4 of recommended amount.
My husband reminded me that the soil-less mix is in the raised beds in the back.
The front raised beds in the pic are big. So we put a foot of mulch at the bottom. Then, have an equal amount of loam-compost mix from a local farm 50/50 with Mel’s mix. So the front media is not 100% soil-less. It has loam-compost in it.
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Galina,
Yikes!!! You used a lot if that compost in many of your raised beds, right?
What is your plan to battle the phytophthora? So sorry to hear this. I know you have put ton of work in creating your veggie garden.
No plan, Tippy. As I said it is time to go to the beach 
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Sour cherries are mor obscure.
I planted 2 Diva cucumber in my soilless compost and one died, but I have 3 more already planted.
You have to be sure that your compost is clean. @anon89542713 just found out her compost carries some diseases. Not all compost is created equal, I guess.
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I think they are clean, because the other 3 Diva cucumbers were planted with the same compost. They are my kitchen waste, but this batch didn’t complete decomposed, mostly paper and twigs. I know I was risking it, but I already had 3 plants from the same variety, I just didn’t want to throw the rest away.
I don’t think it is compost. It is soil in general. I can see signs of phytophtora on the wild plants that didn’t have any compost around. Phytophtora likes cool and humid conditions, that are always exist near wooded creeks, rives, swamps. From there spores fly with wind everywhere , they can travel for miles… This is why my peonies that didn’t see any compost got sick in spring. As of now, I feel a great failure of the move to a better gardening space and don’t even want to think about what to do. One thing makes me somewhat optimistic. There is no “burn out land” around - wild things are growing despite PP pressure. Also this year was extremely bad with weather. I just decided to let it go - I am ready to lose my veggies in July. If I will not - I’ll call it a luck.
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So sorry to hear. I thought the piles of leaves stacked up near the creek were natural “compost” that has given you trouble.
Agree that a lot of rain we have had does not help. I can understand you being so discouraged. Hope the situation will improve for you after you take a needed break.
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Snack time was getting close-ish to ripe (10-11 brix) on 6/29. I picked a few to test. Edible, but they could use a few more weeks. One reason I picked them is that I saw a few half eaten ones on the ground.
Then, a few days later I passed by the rental again and they were all gone. In their place was this guy, who was about 5’ away from me when I looked up into the tree (retreated a bit for the pic).
NJF 20 seems to be close to ripe now. I picked one yesterday that was starting to soften a bit and was ~12 brix.
Here’s another I saw today. Note that you can see daylight through it…Not the prettiest piece of fruit ever. And this is with 5-6 sprays of fungicide (counting from after fruit-set).
I’m a bit surprised, but I was able to pick 2 ripe fruit from the tree. One had lots of exterior damage (and some ants making a hole). But quality was very high. 24 brix, great flavor, still a bit of firmness.
I haven’t eaten the nice looking piece yet. I’ll probably wait for the family to split it. I know it is ripe, due to slight softness.
I got the tree from Arboreum in 2016 and this is the first ripe fruit I’ve gotten from it. It could be the last, as the tree keeps losing sections to wilting. Maybe it will make it to next winter and I can graft it onto something which isn’t so susceptible to that (verticillium wilt?). Maybe graft it to a peach?
I noticed a few remaining Rich May yesterday (several were damaged and rotted). Still not high brix, but juicy and decent flavor.
While picking boysenberries today, I happened across a tree full of ripe Gold Dust peaches. A few had rotted (it’s hard to get good spray coverage, with it tucked between a larger peach and a ravenous kiwi vine), but most were OK. I decided to pick the whole tree, as it isn’t that large (citation rootstock), about 5 pounds total.
I also tested Arctic Glo. Even though it is coloring up, I think it has another week or two to go.
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Thanks for the Mirsenjeli report Rob. It sounds like it could be a good one. It also looks like a “white” apricot. I really enjoyed my white apricots this year, I had the biggest crop ever and the taste was very good.
I stopped by a rental with Sugar Pearl today and 3/4 of the fruit was on the ground. It could have been knocked down the rain we had last night. From the maps, it looks like about 1.5" of rain, though areas with 0.5" and 4" aren’t that far away. It sounded like a machine gun last night for a few minutes…
Drops:
A lot of the fruit on the ground had a bit of damage. I’m thinking about washing off the perfect pieces to eat and cooking up the damaged fruit, after a quick wash and trimming the bad spots. How good is apricot jam? I’m not sure it would be flavorful enough.
The fruit seems like normal apricot color to me, not like a white apricot. So even though the ripeness date seems to be a match, I’m not sure if it is really Sugar Pearls. Can anyone comment?
Everyone loved these apricots, until they got a sliver of the remaining Mirsenjeli Late (only 22 brix, unlike the damaged 24 brix one). Then that got praised and the apricot was just OK. In addition to the higher brix, ML is way more flavorful. Too bad I only had 2 on the tree.
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Those look delicious, Bob.
Now that fruit have sized up (but far from ripening), squirrels don’t even wait for my fruit to get close to ripening.
I have gotten rid of some squirrels but there are more of them everyday.
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Tree rats are obnoxious pests. I’m going to try some home made hot pepper spray. Between that and the hawk kite that I’m going to set to dissuade birds I’m hoping they mostly leave my fruit alone. If not I’ll trap as many as I can throughout the next year. Once that wears thin I may start shooting them and throwing their corpses to the chickens. I hate to do it though. When they are not being obnoxious they are enjoyable to watch. Plus the dog loves to chase them.
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I tried hot pepper spray, it did not work for us.
I came home after work today to see more nectarines were taken. What really gets me is that squirrels don’t eat the whole fruit. Squirrels take a bite here a bite there, just to piss me off, I am sure.
I wish I could shoot them but I live in a densely populated area. I could miss and hit a side of my neighbor’s house easily.
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I’ve heard if you float Saran Wrap with some sunflower seeds on it on a barrel of water you can drown them. I imagine you would need a ramp or nearby branch for them to access it. If your neighbors are animal lovers, put a screen around it to hide it from sight.
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