Gardens/plots for 2018

Sonny580 · May 23, 2018

Need to factor in the germination %.--- most seed claims 85% BUT,--- I have had some that not one plant came up from the whole packet!Also what I find here is soil insects and dry soil rot of some of the seeds.---I know it sounds far out, but I have dug up seeds with the bugs/worms still eating away.
Wire worms in corn are killers big time and its hard to catch them in the act because they work at night.
I apply triple 12,---sometimes triple 10, but I also use pre-emerge chems. on part of the garden.
I have better emergence in finer soil as opposed to cloddy type.---had a small area in my corn this year that the ground turned up a bit wet and got some hard clods before I was able to get them beat down and some of the corn was slow coming and a few spots did not come.
There are a lot of possible causes for seed failure! thanks; sonny

bcjmmac · May 24, 2018

Light front this morning! Should be last one as the “normal last date is 20 May”. Cold weather stuff Isco all up (kale, lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots, Swiss chard, etc). Going to transplant some seedlings into the new herb garden this afternoon. Beans, pumpkins, cups were planted (seeds) couple of days ago. Tomato’s & peppers don’t go into ground until second week of June. Bees are all over the haskap bushes & strawberries are blooming well.
Regarding germination - I presoak a lot of seeds before planting to improve germination. For instance, soaking sweet corn seeds overnight improves germination to almost 100% & they come up quicker, but I only do a small bed.

Sonny580 · Jun 16, 2018

Starting to get a few peas after we got a small bit of rain!--I am still hauling water in hopes of keeping the gardens alive.
spuds are waist high and starting to lay down, so not much more cultivating in there.---Sweet potatoes are starting to vine now, 2 to 3 foot long.---Onions look fair, the early ones kinda got hurt in the snow and 8* temps back then!----RR sweet corn is over knee high and really going strong.--have sprayed it 2 times for grass and weeds. ---Tomatoes are all sizes!--some are starting to bloom and we have cages on the biggest plants.
Will get more pix. tomorrow ! thanks; sonny580

Sonny580 · Jun 21, 2018

Did get a few pix. the other day,--things are much bigger today!
fred beans,--( an 1840 dry bean ,unknown kind)

tomatoes in cages

regular sweet corn, now tasseling

RR sweet corn, now also tasseling

down the 7 onion rows, 225 feet long

sweet potatoes.--today they have almost filled the rows

regular potatoes have today fallen over and filled the rows
this is sorta an idea of what we have.--did get a bit more rain over the last two days! thanks; sonny580
the big tanker for garden water

the tote

oldballs · Jun 22, 2018

Sonny, you must really be in a garden business with the volume that you have. And you must have help with cultivation, picking and harvesting.

Thanks to all for the comments on germination. I beginning to wonder if the whole lot of seeds were defective some way. .. cause I've never seen such poor germination before. The carrots never did sprout.

The weather here was abnormally hot and dry for the past month, such that I had to manually water with a hose every other day. Here's some pic.

Sonny580 · Jun 22, 2018

Sounds like you have our hot/dry weather there too!--Not good for sure,--makes it hard on everything. Hard to be out in it long enough to get much done.
I work mostly by my self in the gardens. Sis helps a lot with the hoeing/weeding/transplanting/etc.
I try to keep the tillers going as much as I can. The ole spine has been slowing me down since the 4 surgeries left me rather weak, so I gotta slow down.
We always over plant to insure that we have plenty. Even then, some stuff just don't grow. had several packages of seed that didn't come up either. Some just a plant or two out of the whole package came up.
I have a good stand of carrots, beets, peanuts, etc. No dill, spinach, parsnips, or sugar beets ever came up this year.
We never sell anything, sometimes give some away to anyone who wants produce.
The RR sweetcorn seed and the roundup chem. is provided by the guy down the road that lets me get water from his 10,000 tanker that he keeps full during the spring thru fall months so he can quickly fill his big sprayer. I have hauled several thousand gallons so far this year. Last year total was 13,000 gallons that I hauled from his tanker.
I make sure that he and his employees get all the produce that they want in exchange for the water and seed.thanks; sonny580

Sonny580 · Jun 30, 2018

More hot muggy weather here again. can't do much very fast and now we got the summer flush of weeds to fight!
Have been harvesting the peas and green beans. also a few nice broc. heads. Have a couple of cabbage heads getting close to harvesting. Did start getting the short season onions pulled and on the drying rack.---they didn't do well this year due to the late freezes we had.
Looks like the red norland spuds have some nice ones under the rows and I did heist a few to eat.-- Probably will dig them in a few weeks.--the pontiacs and kennebecks have a long ways to go. they look good so far, except I gotta keep fighting the potato beetles off them!
Sweet corn: The honey select and jackpot are setting ears and pollen, so it may come in early.
The RR sweet corn is tasseling and doing good so far!--It was planted a couple weeks later than the regular corn so as to spread out the harvest.
That's about it for this weeks report!----How are you guys doing in your gardens????---- PIX.??? LOL!!!!! thanks; sonny580

Sonny580 · Jul 9, 2018

A few corn and spud pix. !

Been harvesting the short season onions.--they had a rough time this year due to the late freeze that we had! The full season ones look a bit better.--This was not the best garden year!!! LOL!!! thanks; sonny580

goeduck · Jul 13, 2018

I live in a cooler climate on the saltwater and this this year put my tomatoes in pots on the deck. Last year did not work out having them adjacent to the beach. Tomatoes ripening in July is good for my location.