08-31-2023, 05:23 PM
All-in-all, despite the promising start of the growing season, when I actually got a couple dozen radishes and more lettuce than I could harvest before the rest bolted (note to self: don't bother with daikon radishes as a food crop anymore; they take too long to grow to maturity before the weather gets too hot. Just use them as a cover crop, if at all), and despite getting some volunteer pumpkin plants, this year has been, on the whole so far, a bust. Not as bad as last year, but not good by any stretch of the imagination. Cucumber beetles and squash bugs. Every day I'd go out and examine the leaves for eggs and every day every cucumber, pumpkin, and zucchini plant would have more eggs laid on them. The day I went out and each of the first five leaves of the first plant I checked had eggs as well as each flower on that plant, was the day I pulled up all the zucchini as well as the cucumbers that had started succumbing to bacterial wilt disease. Threw them in a garbage bag and had the garbage truck haul it away. No way I was going to put them in the compost.
Of the three pumpkin plants, the middle one also succumbed to wilt disease, the east one produced only one pumpkin, and the west one never produced any before I also pulled them up because I was tired of fighting, and losing to, the squash bugs. Every day for over two months I'd go out and remove the eggs that were laid overnight and kill what bugs I could. I'll tell you, one overcomes one's queasiness about squishing crunchy insects quickly.
The tomato turned out better, but not good. The yellow pear tomatoes turned out to be much smaller than I expected, smaller than the cherry tomatoes, and easily susceptible to splitting. The cherry tomatoes haven't been producing much, but more than the slicers. And what slicers did grow never grew to even two inches in diameter.
I tried growing some kale. Never germinated. I tried Swiss chard. Three seeds germinated, that I could tell. One made it to about four inches tall before the slugs finished it off overnight. None of the basil germinated. About half of the pepper plants germinated, but they haven't produced yet. Don't know if they will. I keep finding dropped flowers. And don't get me started on the experiment of growing potatoes in a grow bag.
On the bright side, the ginger plant that was given to me last fall seems to have survived. And it looks like the lettuce seeds I planted in the shaded hasty bed two months ago have decided to sprout. Either that or the weeds have decided to become regimented. Wouldn't surprise me.
Of the three pumpkin plants, the middle one also succumbed to wilt disease, the east one produced only one pumpkin, and the west one never produced any before I also pulled them up because I was tired of fighting, and losing to, the squash bugs. Every day for over two months I'd go out and remove the eggs that were laid overnight and kill what bugs I could. I'll tell you, one overcomes one's queasiness about squishing crunchy insects quickly.
The tomato turned out better, but not good. The yellow pear tomatoes turned out to be much smaller than I expected, smaller than the cherry tomatoes, and easily susceptible to splitting. The cherry tomatoes haven't been producing much, but more than the slicers. And what slicers did grow never grew to even two inches in diameter.
I tried growing some kale. Never germinated. I tried Swiss chard. Three seeds germinated, that I could tell. One made it to about four inches tall before the slugs finished it off overnight. None of the basil germinated. About half of the pepper plants germinated, but they haven't produced yet. Don't know if they will. I keep finding dropped flowers. And don't get me started on the experiment of growing potatoes in a grow bag.
On the bright side, the ginger plant that was given to me last fall seems to have survived. And it looks like the lettuce seeds I planted in the shaded hasty bed two months ago have decided to sprout. Either that or the weeds have decided to become regimented. Wouldn't surprise me.
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