Mixed bag of a year for me so far, but it seems like every year presents new challenges so maybe I should just get used to it. Where to even start…
Tomatoes: Best year ever starting them from seed, they were huge when I was ready to transplant them. Unfortunately they got hit by some herbicide drift (my fault) which stalled growth for a week or two. They recovered beyond expectations and are already over 6’ tall and filling out a 24" wide rebar cage. Too bad the squirrels seem to be getting the majority that are starting to ripen. I hate the thought of it but I might have to start culling their population a bit.
Eggplants: Mostly did Japanese eggplants and they performed excellently this year. I say “preformed” because they got hit hard with spider-mites recently (as did almost everything in my yard). Sprayed them with insecticidal soap, hoping they bounce back.
Peppers: Put them out too early and they got hit by the herbicide drift, suffered a lot more because of the combined effect of those two things. I don’t think they will recover from it, production seems very poor. Going to try again next year but with only 2 plants, if any.
Melons / Cucumbers: Transplanted them out way too early. Growth stalled and they really suffered initially. Honestly, would have been better off direct seeding them. Getting some production now but compared to last year I am 2-3 weeks behind.
Spinach: First round of seeds went great. I highly recommend the varieties called Woodpecker and Reflect, very slow to bolt. They can probably even be planted in late spring before the soil gets too warm for them to germinate properly.
Looking back one would think I had a very bad year so far but I changed a lot of things that I do this year and learning from these mistakes will give me an awesome year next year - or so I hope, its only my 5th year gardening.
I haven’t had much luck with carrots in the past either and am wondering if all the rain this year has been what helped. Chantenay Red Core carrot is the one that has been doing really well for me.
I might give that one a try. I also noticed a review from a user in Vernon, CT for the Danvers Half Long at Baker Creek’s page. They claim to have a superior strain of DHL, but that one is for sale at every store (at least the non-“superior” strain). Christmas Tree Shops might still have it on clearance for a quarter or whatever.
The review said it grows so big for him that one carrot is enough for a carrot cake, and that it’s sweet and stores well.
I lost three Sunburst patty pan squash and four zucchini plants this year. I had more than I could eat last year. My guess is SVB but the Sunburst was suppose to be resistant to them. I was unable to locate any larvae in the stems either so I don’t know. Same with the cucumbers, I have gotten a handful, but they just are not doing well.
Everything has been good to great. Just starting to get some little finger eggplant and a few tomatoes.
Yeah, I thought I had that two years ago too. But haven’t seen a recurrence (fingers crossed).
This year I am getting sporadic leaf wilting that kind of looks like bacterial wilt, but its not impacting entire vines only random leaves. Its impacting the plant that was off to a bad start worse than ones that were started later. Makes me really think that the early health of any plant plays a huge role in its health at maturity, except for tomatoes because they grow like weeds.
I had two eggplants I started from seed look 95% dead one week after planting. They were brown and wilted and being eaten by flea beetles. I bought two plants to replace them, but just for fun I planted the two almost dead ones in pots and move them to a different location. They came back and started looking better so I planted them out again and now they are bigger than the ones from the box store. Guess you never know.
I noticed that some of our corn stalks were knocked over or damaged. I thought it might be deer but saw no hoof prints in the mud. Well, last night before I went to bed, I shown my spotlight down the hill towards the patch and saw green eyes staring back, but at a lower level. I put my boots on, and ran down the hill and saw that it wasn’t a deer but a big rabbit! I ran it out of the patch. I didn’t think they mess with corn, but I don’t know what else it could be if it wasn’t deer. Dang rabbits, can’t protect my corn from them. At least they leave the tomatoes alone.
I don’t notice a big difference in the taste of cucumbers. They’re all crunchy and mildly sweet to me. But people I’ve shared them with tend to like the white one Silver Slicer the most.
Tomato plants are just about done, they started blighting out a couple weeks ago, despite the dry weather, maybe it was too dry. We had a big rain this morning, so that ought to hasten their decline. There’s still a lot of green and ripe fruit on the plants, but I imagine they won’t be as good as the earlier crop. But, this was our best year for tomatoes, I’ve already canned 18 quarts, far and away the most of any year.
My peppers were started in late June, so they’re starting to produce some yellow banana, jalapeno, cayenne and habanero peppers now. @Drew51, I tried my first ripe Fish pepper, it was pretty warm, but had a good flavor, look forward to getting some more samples.
My super hots are slow getting going, but the Ghost Pepper plant has some good size green pods on it now.
Corn is done, we had a decent crop this year, we didn’t can any, we vacuum sealed and froze it this year.
Potatoes are done, they have had fair production, but haven’t dug them all up yet.
