Jim Inman's (jinman) Garden - 2007

[jinman]

We've been blessed with fresh cucumbers and tomatoes this year in abundance, nice to have friends. One of our treats is these fruits of our friend's labor blessed with Rox's spicey olive oil, liberally blessed. I would never have considered putting so much olive oil on anything, I thought of olive oil as cooking oil. But this stuff from Rox has taste and it really brings out the flavor of the tomatoes and cucumbers.

Glenda's up in OKC grandparenting one oh one'n but she'll be home Wednesday or so. Talk to Kathy and maybe we can get together for a Jinman garden tasting party, we'll bring the blessing.

Harvey, I'm planning on being at my daughter's house on Sunday, but this Saturday has possibilities if you and Glenda want to come over that soon. Did you plan on a weekday or weekend to stop by? We don't have to do it on the weekend, but I don't get home from work during the week until about 7 pm, so that may limit our garden time.

I can promise you we'll have more tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, peas, and squash, but the cantaloupes are just about done for awhile. The vines are dying and the whole patch is looking sad. Rox's olive oil probably won't taste too good with watermelon, but we have those too.

Do you have my phone numbers?

 

[jinman]

ANTS!

The fire ants here are beating me to the okra. When the okra gets one inch long the ants bite holes in it and eat the juice (slime) out of the okra. ??

Question: How do you know when sweet potatoes are done? This Is my first time trying and the slips are growing quickly.

Don, I can't believe how hard you are struggling with your garden this year. Ours is starting to fade some, but the squash dies back and then sprouts out new growth. Suddenly, we have a second wave of production. First, you had the weed attack and now the fire ants. We also have some ants and aphids, but I don't know that I've ever seen ants on the okra.

I have never grown sweet potatoes before this year, but my "book" says 120 days from when you set out the slips. That means the last of September to early October for me. You might have small potatoes at 90 days, but full maturity is at 120 days, I think. My patch is going nuts. It seems to love where we put it...and so do the weeds and Johnson grass.

Our okra and peas have a strange disease that runs through them. Sections (3 to 5 plants) just start turning brown and dry up. The okra suddenly wilts and becomes very woody. It's an identical disease to what we saw last year in a different place in the garden. It's probably a virus of some type. I'll try to get some pictures. Has anyone else seen this? Our tomatoes also have fungus that moves up from the ground, but that is pretty normal and not at all like the disease that hits the okra and peas.

Oh yes...here are some pictures of a cut ****** melon and one that hybridized next to normal cantaloupes. It seems the ****** melon is very easy to get to do this. We have had lots of these hybrids this year. The skin has a partial vein pattern like the Israels, but is also very slick like a watermelon in spots. the meat is sweet and firm, but orange and tastes like a normal cantaloupe.

 

[TBDonnelly]

The okra suddenly wilts and becomes very woody. It's an identical disease to what we saw last year in a different place in the garden. It's probably a virus of some type. I'll try to get some pictures. Has anyone else seen this?

I saw this nice little, innocent looking, striped beetle on my cucumbers.

After that the cucumber leaves started wilting. Googled "nice little striped beetle" only to learn it's the "not so nice" cucumber beetle and they transfer "bacteria wilt" from plant to plant to plant. I've yanked out about half of the cucumber plants so far.....

Don

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

I have not see anyone with tomatoes like these either. My friends Dad got the seeds from a old man years ago. Ever since they have been the pride and joy of all our gardens. They are a excellant tomatoe because because of high yields of large fruit, very meaty, very low in seeds and acid. (extremely sweet). will post pictures of our first large harvest

Ray

Ray,

Those tomatoes look a lot like a variety called Opalka that I got from Tomato Growers Supply. I grew them last year but didn't have much luck....it was a terrible year for tomatoes here and few of mine did well. However, the green Opalkas looked very similar to your Italian heirloom. We didn't get a single ripe one to try that didn't first get eaten on by bugs and such.

Chuck

 

[jinman]

I saw this nice little, innocent looking, striped beetle on my cucumbers.

After that the cucumber leaves started wilting. Googled "nice little striped beetle" only to learn it's the "not so nice" cucumber beetle and they transfer "bacteria wilt" from plant to plant to plant. I've yanked out about half of the cucumber plants so far.....

They got on my potatoes, cantaloupes, cucumbers, squash, and watermelons too. I sprayed them, but I think the damage was done. However, on the cucumbers, cantaloupes, and squash the damage seemed to go so far and stop; being confined to the leaves. On the okra and peas, the wilt will kill the whole plant and make it dry up like it is burned. I'll try to take some pictures and post them to show what I mean. I'm not for sure it is a different disease, but I think it is.

 

[BTDT]

About all I have left growing is tomatoes, and okra. That's enough to keep me busy. One of my helpers in pic 10.

 

[randy41]

the cucumber beetles got some of my melons....they lay their eggs at the base of the plant and their babies eat the roots. they are generally considered a minor nuisance since they usually don't devastate a whole crop but i've had years where they wiped out my melons entirely. if you grow organically there's not much you can do about them.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harvey, I'm planning on being at my daughter's house on Sunday, but this Saturday has possibilities if you and Glenda want to come over that soon. Did you plan on a weekday or weekend to stop by? We don't have to do it on the weekend, but I don't get home from work during the week until about 7 pm, so that may limit our garden time.

I can promise you we'll have more tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, peas, and squash, but the cantaloupes are just about done for awhile. The vines are dying and the whole patch is looking sad. Rox's olive oil probably won't taste too good with watermelon, but we have those too.

Do you have my phone numbers?

Miss Glenda is coming home today. And she said a trip to Sunset would make her as happy as happy can be this Saturday. We'll bring the tree bottles of Olive Oil and do the taste test review thing as formally as folks in Texas can do formally. (Texans are more into formerly than formally). I'll call you today.

 

[jinman]

Miss Glenda is coming home today. And she said a trip to Sunset would make her as happy as happy can be this Saturday. We'll bring the tree bottles of Olive Oil and do the taste test review thing as formally as folks in Texas can do formally. (Texans are more into formerly than formally). I'll call you today.

Sounds like a good plan to me, Harvey. I'll load the string trimmer with a new spool of twine so we can cut a path thru the jungle to get to the garden.

You do know I'm gonna "force" you to eat some grilled squash with olive oil and garlic, don't you?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

We're looking forward to Saturday. Glenda's going to call Kathy tomorrow to see what we need to bring besides Rox's Olive Oil.

We opened the fruity tasting one tonight, I didn't have my glasses on but that's what Glenda said the bottle said. I liberally blessed some chopped jalopenas, garlic, onions, and fresh tomatoes with the Olive Oil.

Ooooowheee! It was the perfect complement to a large can of Mexican Homilee mixed with some of my chili meat.

This time of year there are two things I eat as much as possible. Garlic for the mosquitos, I swear it works. The other is cheap mustard for the muscle cramps, I know it works. And both of those go well with jalopenas.