2022 gardens

Same here up in the land of rocks and cows!! Ok Stearns cty!!

My DIY drip irrigation system is in business!!!

My peppers havent grown much at all but my tomatoes have grown alot

My tomatoes are growing now. Peppers don’t usually grow much for me till later in the summer.

We need some heat to see the maters and peppers take off. The best we could ever hope for was 90’s thru the daytime hours with 70’s overnight and 1/2″ of rain about every third night during the night from now until September Of course this is Minnesota so basically, we take what we get.

I can almost see my tomatoes growing this morning!

suzuki wrote:

I can almost see my tomatoes growing this morning!

I thought the same thing, one of mine had to grow 4″ in the last 24 hours!

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

My DIY drip irrigation system is in business!!!

That’s pretty good Ralph.

I went on a foreign work trip to the west coast of Peru years ago and all of their crops, even on a large scale basis, used drip irrigation. It literally NEVER rained in that region west of the Andes to the Pacific coast, but they had lush, thriving orchards of fruit and even a few grape operations used for wine.

When I told them that we all pretty much used sprinklers for our irrigation, they laughed and said our way of using sprinklers here was a complete waste of water. “Americans just can’t figure it out, can they?” one of them said lol. If I ever go back there, I can now tell them that at least one of us has figured it out.

So what’s everyone using for fertilizer? I made about 50 gallons of compost from scraps and cut grass last year that I used on last year’s beds. I tilled up a new space this year and topped it with about 4″ of Sta-Green garden soil from Lowe’s. Each planting hole got a small handful of Espoma Garden-Tone, then every 10 days or so I’m watering a little bit of Alaska brand fish emulsion fertilizer on each plant. Smells like stink bait. Plants more than doubled in size in two weeks and now that it’s hot I’m sure they’ll double again in 3-4 days.

I usually till in peat moss and cow manure then a little miracle grow here and there. I chimped out this year and hope more miracle grow will take up the slack. Ive developed some nice soil over the years so Im sure it will work out.

I did a soil test this year and didn’t really need anything, so I didn’t add any fertilizer. I did drop the pH a bit based on the soil analysis.

I gotta biach a little. Normally I buy all Burpee seeds but couldnt find enough pumpkins so I ended up having to buy Livingston brand seeds. Out of the 111 seeds I planted 14 days ago 1 came up. Perfectly tilled weedless warm moist soil. Burpee seeds i had from last year are about 85 percent. Dug up a bunch of the seeds some had out a 1/4 inch dead sprout some looked like the day I planted them and some were rotten. Called Livingston seeds the lady was very nice and said she would send me a care package of all kinds of there stuff. Thank you but aint gonna do me any good if they dont come up again. She said she talked to there seed specialist and their pumpkins were tested at 88 percent germination this year. Thought maybe everyones favorite Fleet Farm sold me old seeds but packages say 2022. What a waste of time money and field space.

Any of you get potato bugs, and if so what do you do about them? I’ve gotten them the past 2 years now and all I’ve ever done is walk through and crush the ones I find with my fingers. My wife has sprinkled some sort of powder on them before too.

Dan wrote:

Any of you get potato bugs, and if so what do you do about them? I’ve gotten them the past 2 years now and all I’ve ever done is walk through and crush the ones I find with my fingers. My wife has sprinkled some sort of powder on them before too.

I haven’t had them since i quit planting potatoes. They are a total PITA!!

Dan wrote:

Any of you get potato bugs, and if so what do you do about them? I’ve gotten them the past 2 years now and all I’ve ever done is walk through and crush the ones I find with my fingers. My wife has sprinkled some sort of powder on them before too.

When we first see them we’ll put a product called Sevin on our potato plants. It’s an insect killer that comes in dust form. You need a shaker container. Look it up. It works for us.

JEREMY wrote:

I gotta biach a little. Normally I buy all Burpee seeds but couldnt find enough pumpkins so I ended up having to buy Livingston brand seeds. Out of the 111 seeds I planted 14 days ago 1 came up. Perfectly tilled weedless warm moist soil. Burpee seeds i had from last year are about 85 percent. Dug up a bunch of the seeds some had out a 1/4 inch dead sprout some looked like the day I planted them and some were rotten. Called Livingston seeds the lady was very nice and said she would send me a care package of all kinds of there stuff. Thank you but aint gonna do me any good if they dont come up again. She said she talked to there seed specialist and their pumpkins were tested at 88 percent germination this year. Thought maybe everyones favorite Fleet Farm sold me old seeds but packages say 2022. What a waste of time money and field space.

Not sure how you plant your pumpkins, but I make mounds and then plant the seeds in the mound. I used all seeds from last years’ pumpkins. Planted 19 mounds. There were about 5 or so mounds where nothing came up. I just plant more seeds in those mounds until they start coming up. Same thing happened last year.

Jeremy, I’m having the same issue with my kalarabi from burpee. This is supposed to be a kalarabi?! Anyone in else know what it is?? My step dad thinks it’s an unfertilized kalarabi which he thinks won’t form the ball ???

Dan wrote:

Any of you get potato bugs, and if so what do you do about them? I’ve gotten them the past 2 years now and all I’ve ever done is walk through and crush the ones I find with my fingers. My wife has sprinkled some sort of powder on them before too.

Bonide potato bug beater. It’s the only thing that works I’ve tried many 1 application should be all you need if you spray it correctly.

glenn57 wrote:

Jeremy, I’m having the same issue with my kalarabi from burpee. This is supposed to be a kalarabi?! Anyone in else know what it is?? My step dad thinks it’s an unfertilized kalarabi which he thinks won’t form the ball ???

Are your other kohlrabi plants doing OK? Ideal temps are 65-75. Maybe it’s too hot?

On a side note, we just had a tornado come through. Big maple dropped a 50′ limb on the corner of my house and landed a foot in front of my car. Insurance will take care of the damage to the BRAND NEW ROOF. I’m going to Eagle Lake, ON for a week on Mon, so I’ll deal with it after. Almost all of my tomato plants are flattened to the ground. They were all about 15″ tall and just starting to look dark green and healthy today. Hopefully they’ll bounce back. Spent a lot of time on them.

Yay

Garden is coming along nicely!! Hope this heat doesn’t beat it up the next few days.

Replanted all the spots that didnt come up with seeds my dad saved from my pumpkins from last year hopefully they come up fast its getting late already. Had to water my in town garden last night dang was it dry.

The spinach and lettuce got really bitter with this heat so I pulled it.

I’ll try a fall batch!!

I pulled my spinach last night while i was watering the garden with my sweat.

JEREMY wrote:

Replanted all the spots that didnt come up with seeds my dad saved from my pumpkins from last year

Does that work pretty well? I got some good pumpkins last year but just bought new packets this year. I bet I’ve had at least a dozen pumpkin plants naturally reproduce this year. Does using the seeds from last year’s pumpkins work pretty well?

I hope ive never done it before. Couldnt find any seeds to buy so fingers crossed and I hope the were heirloom so I dont get some f ed up looking gourds or something

My brother does it all the time with his campori tomatoes and has a good crop the following year. I’ve let “volunteer” plants grow and get results.
I do it with dill seed all the time!

anyone else plant jalapeno peppers????? how are they doing???? mine just dont want to grow. there nice and green but i dont think they’ve grown but 2 inches since i planted them.

i thought this past heat wave would of kicked them in????

glenn57 wrote:

anyone else plant jalapeno peppers????? how are they doing???? mine just dont want to grow. there nice and green but i dont think they’ve grown but 2 inches since i planted them.

i thought this past heat wave would of kicked them in????

Our jalapeños and bells are slow moving. Poblano’s took off, and the tomato plants seem to grow an inch a minute.

Dan wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JEREMY wrote:</div>
Replanted all the spots that didnt come up with seeds my dad saved from my pumpkins from last year

Does that work pretty well? I got some good pumpkins last year but just bought new packets this year. I bet I’ve had at least a dozen pumpkin plants naturally reproduce this year. Does using the seeds from last year’s pumpkins work pretty well?

Yes it works well if the seed came from the correct type of plant. Heirloom, open pollinated, non hybrid strains are crucial I believe.

Cross pollination is a huge issue also. Proper seed saving requires families of plants to be distanced, usually 100yards but that number varies also.

Good luck