Garden Thread 2023

[govwontletmebuycoolguns]

Beans are real easy. Grow from seed, get the stringless variety, and give them something to climb (I use jute twine).

Biggest issue is keeping the deer away, because they love bean plants and will eat them before anything else (haven’t had an issue since putting up the electric fence):

 

[Archeryrob]

Ditto on the deer. I lots 2# of planted seed to one doe and my buddies son lost 4 huge rows to the deer. Soy beans only grow with deer around as they plant entire fields of it. I got a 4' fence on both gardens and they just hop it.

 

[Blacksmith101]

Beauty!!!

How difficult is it to grow green beans?

Beans are easy to grow, prepare your soil make rows and insert seeds water if required. There are two common types:

Pole Beans - are vine like and need something to climb such as poles or a string trellis. Pole beans produce bean pods over a long growing season and you can pick the mature pods as they grow and have fresh beans over a long time.

Bush Beans - are a compact bushy plant that doesn't climb. Bush beans tend to have all the pods mature at the same time which makes them ideal for canning because you get a large harvest all at once which makes batch processing easy. You can plant rows of bush beans in succession a week or two apart so you can have several canning sessions so you don't exceed your processing capability.

Lots of gardeners plant some of each so they can have fresh from the garden pole beans with dinner during the growing season and have batches of bush beans for freezing or canning for the rest of the year.

Links to some seed catalogs. Blue lake Bush Beans and Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans are two popular varieties:

Burpee

Bean Seeds - Soy Beans,Snap, Lima, Pole, Filet - Vegetable Seeds - Burpee

Find bean seeds for soybeans, bush beans, filet beans, lima beans, string beans, pole beans and organic beans with a variety of colors & flavors at Burpee. Grow beans in your home garden with high-quality bean seeds.

www.burpee.com

Park Seed

Bean Seeds: Garden Beans & Green Bean Seeds | Park Seed | Park Seed

Shop bean seeds online at Park Seed. Grow your own green bean, pole, bush and lima seeds easily in your own garden. Enjoy fresh homegrown beans today!

parkseed.com

I just looked and the first frost date for central Maryland is October 15th so you have enough time to plant beans and get a harvest before frost. Many bean varieties mature in about 60 days so pick up some seed packets and get them in the ground or in containers and you can have beans to harvest this year.

 

[mpollan1]

What say ye? Downy Mildew? Treatment? My cukes are producing but I'm concerned their life is being hampered.

 

[MigraineMan]

Yesterday's haul. Might need to consider making a Tomato Pie.

Some kind of boring bug is beating the hell out of our sqasheses and cucumbereses. They look awful.

 

[All Good Hits]

What say ye? Downy Mildew? Treatment? My cukes are producing but I'm concerned their life is being hampered.

View attachment 424145 View attachment 424147

Let me know if you figure it out, because I've got similar issues going on with mine...

 

[mpollan1]

Let me know if you figure it out, because I've got similar issues going on with mine...

Sure thing. I'm hoping someone chimes in as I am not a biologist.

 

[govwontletmebuycoolguns]

Could be Anthracnose, Downy Mildew, or Target Leaf Rot (fungal, and most likely), in which case need to use a fungicide. If bacterial like Angular Leaf Spot, is toast. A lot of cucumber diseases look the same.

 

[wilcam47]

What say ye? Downy Mildew? Treatment? My cukes are producing but I'm concerned their life is being hampered.

View attachment 424145 View attachment 424147

https://dengarden.com/gardening/Plant-Diseases-that-Affect-Cucumbers-and-How-to-Treat-Them

 

[mpollan1]

Thanks Wilcam. I did find sites like that with that type of info but was hoping for the collective here to give me a BTDT . I'll keep digging...

 

[pbharvey]

I planted celebrity and mortgage maker tomatoes this year. The celebrities are insanely vibrant and the mortgage makers are huge and meaty.

My poblano peppers seem to be a little stunted. They are about the size of a child’s fist instead of the size of a man’s hand. Any ideas why? I’m not sure when to harvest them, if I should wait to see if they grow out more or just bite the bullet and enjoy the smaller pepper. We planted these for a particular recipe of stuffed poblanos so a small pepper is a bummer. One or two turned red so I assume they’re pretty much done growing.

 

[Joseph]

I planted celebrity and mortgage maker tomatoes this year. The celebrities are insanely vibrant and the mortgage makers are huge and meaty.
View attachment 424463 View attachment 424464

My poblano peppers seem to be a little stunted. They are about the size of a child’s fist instead of the size of a man’s hand. Any ideas why? I’m not sure when to harvest them, if I should wait to see if they grow out more or just bite the bullet and enjoy the smaller pepper. We planted these for a particular recipe of stuffed poblanos so a small pepper is a bummer. One or two turned red so I assume they’re pretty much done growing.

Those tomatoes look great!
But where is the bacon??

 

[pbharvey]

Those tomatoes look great!
But where is the bacon??

It went on right after the black pepper. Super happy with these two varieties of slicers.

 

[Sundazes]

The storm last night took out one pf my 2 mater plants. Bent the stalks and they hit the ground. I tied them back up this morning hoping it recovers. I have them in earth boxes. the maters are just starting to ripen.

 

[mpollan1]

The storm last night took out one pf my 2 mater plants. Bent the stalks and they hit the ground. I tied them back up this morning hoping it recovers. I have them in earth boxes. the maters are just starting to ripen.

You can lay them down horizontally if you have room and the stems/stalk will likely root. Pretty resilient plants.

 

[eruby]

Today's haul

 

[MigraineMan]

Yesterday's haul. Might need to consider making a Tomato Pie.

View attachment 424377

Into the pot with ye!

The Wife has been experimenting with "indeterminate" tomatoes this season. Things got tall.

 

[Sundazes]

You can lay them down horizontally if you have room and the stems/stalk will likely root. Pretty resilient plants.

Thanks. I don’t have room and the critters would destroy them.
I found a group of about 6 heavy maters had fallen off. Just gotta let them ripen.
I did take a trimmed off limb and just shoved the end in a flower pot a couple weeks ago. It started rooting and now has a small flower stem on it. I had no clue it would do that.

Anyone know how to deal with blossom rot. Got a couple with it. I read on the inter webs to pour milk in the soil due to the calcium deficiency.

 

[govwontletmebuycoolguns]

Soooo......don't cut kindling for old fashion Hungarian goulash over an open fire when you've been drinkin. Could probably take 3 or 4 stitches, but I got the bleeding stopped and some [more] alcohol and and a dab of superglue should resolve the situation.

 

[mpollan1]

Thanks. I don’t have room and the critters would destroy them.
I found a group of about 6 heavy maters had fallen off. Just gotta let them ripen.
I did take a trimmed off limb and just shoved the end in a flower pot a couple weeks ago. It started rooting and now has a small flower stem on it. I had no clue it would do that.

Anyone know how to deal with blossom rot. Got a couple with it. I read on the inter webs to pour milk in the soil due to the calcium deficiency.

Get a bag of lime or crush eggshells or oyster shells. The lime I think is more readily absorbed as the others need to break down a bit before being absorbed. I suppose milk would work but I'd rather drink it.