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Post by paulf on May 20, 2024 15:44:18 GMT -5
To anyone who has read my posts this will get a chuckle. We decided a few years ago to increase the number of raised beds and reserve the regular garden to the important crops like tomatoes, peppers, asparagus and my feeble attempt at vine crops. We now have eight raised bed areas. Two are six wide old cattle waterers, four are plastic 55 gal drums cut lengthwise that I built frames to have them at a three foot level. One is a sheep waterer made of plastic also on a stand. One is an old washtub three feet across, one is another sheep waterer that has almost all herbs along with two whiskey barrels with herbs and flowers and a new redwood planter.
After Mrs F planted everything she wanted this year and added a few extra peppers to one tub, I was told to plant something in a sheep waterer and the washtub. My decision was made, I planted the new crop and they are coming up like gangbusters...ONIONS! About fifty yellow onion sets and fifty white onion sets. So now what does an onion hater do with all those onions? What next? OKRA?, brussels sprouts?
Never thought the day would come to have ONIONS is my garden!
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Post by september on May 20, 2024 15:51:50 GMT -5
What were you thinking??? Paul, I know you hate onions --- but does that include deep fried breaded onion rings? The onion taste is negligible under the crisp crust. Not a food for a dieter of course.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on May 21, 2024 10:34:05 GMT -5
YOU planted ONIONS?!? And a hundred sets at that! ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/3247375/images/LO3fz8obUsoM1TzmCkAS.png) Does your wife eat those, or are you planning to set up an onion stand by the road? ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/3247375/images/AlTVKjAhCypksR0Ugttf.png)
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Post by paulf on May 21, 2024 13:57:33 GMT -5
We went a little overboard on the first attempt. We will most likely have a few fajitas when the tomatoes and peppers come on. Then it will be a mystery what happens to the rest. Along with all the other extra produce , the onions will end up at the local Post Office for the non-gardeners to take home. Update on the three day old onions....and the other vegetable raised beds: ![](https://i.ibb.co/vLTzkj4/IMG-8672.jpg)
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Post by paulf on Jul 12, 2024 10:15:33 GMT -5
An update on P and Mrs.P's gardens: The raised beds are producing cucumbers and green beans like crazy. The onions are getting bigger and hotter every day. ![](https://i.ibb.co/W30Y5hq/IMG-8703.jpg) ![](https://i.ibb.co/kMQWGwM/IMG-8704.jpg) And "Oh no!" it may be happening again. Several tomato plants are not growing and beginning to whither away. After last year's debacle of losing 1/3 of the tomato crop. there are several looking peaked right now. Most look OK. I am not really sure what is going on or how to fix it. Soil tests indicate the soil is OK but is there a testing to see if there is another problem? Guess I will have to contact the agronomy dept. at Nebraska to see . ![](https://i.ibb.co/XCsTHjd/IMG-8705.jpg) ![](https://i.ibb.co/Vtr4H9P/IMG-8710.jpg) On a better note, the asparagus season is over and time to let it all go to seed. As in the photo, the future looks bright. Beside these five year old shoots there is another row of two year old plants also doing well. ![](https://i.ibb.co/yRQXkq8/IMG-8712.jpg) As a side note, Mrs P has a bunch of raised bed flowers, herbs and miscellaneous plants around a neat fish pond. Twenty years ago when SSE was still a group I belonged to they asked me to trial some Grandpa Ott's Morning Glories. I did and actually planted them in a couple of places around the yard. Talk about prolific! Mrs P decided they were not in the plan so we have been trying to get rid of them for fifteen years or so. Having given up on the idea she decided to see how to make them a part of the flower beds. Can't kill 'em so work with 'em. ![](https://i.ibb.co/M2k9RX3/IMG-8713.jpg) We are a week or out from ripening large tomatoes. Some of the smaller ones are beginning to turn. Some plants will not make it. Those will be rouged out in case they have a disease. Wish I knew what was going on. Twenty years without a problem and now two years in a row of not being so perfect.
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Post by octave1 on Jul 12, 2024 10:27:42 GMT -5
Wish I knew what was going on. Twenty years without a problem and now two years in a row of not being so perfect. paulf, google aminopyralid
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Post by paulf on Jul 12, 2024 11:05:32 GMT -5
octave1, After removing all of last years straw I did a test by planting green beans. I did that last fall to see if the soil was contaminated. The beans showed to signs of herbicide damage. The straw mulch used this year came from another source that supposedly was not treated with any chemical. I still suspect it may be my mulch rather than soil contamination. No one around here uses Grazon or the Dow chemicals on their fields where I get the straw. Thanks for the input. Hopefully I can track down the problem.
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Post by paulf on Jul 15, 2024 9:39:57 GMT -5
This morning the third wilting tomato plant was pulled. What was noticeable were the root systems on all three plants. They were very small as if still in a ball. No nematodes, no diseases visible, no real problems except they were not spreading out horizontally. The plants were not I close to each other, we’re not the same variety and different in color, size and leaf formation.
I try to till deep in the fall, till in organic material to keep the soil from compacting and add whatever nutrients my soil test lab suggests. So far this year only three of twenty-five have been pulled. Last year it was 12/25 and it began about this time of the year. Residual herbicide maybe, but why only in separate spots? Last year very little production while there are plenty of tomatoes on the vines getting ready to turn color.
If there are more deaths it may be time to take a year off and grow a cover crop.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 16, 2024 9:59:26 GMT -5
I'm sorry to hear that you're still having trouble in your garden. Hopefully that will be the end of the strange tomato plant deaths this year.
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Post by paulf on Jul 16, 2024 10:48:10 GMT -5
Besides the three already pulled at least two more are looking a little peaked. But they have small tomatoes and some fresh blossoms. Maybe it was the four or five days of extreme (for here anyway) heat. The careful watch is on. Way better than last year and some fruits are beginning to ripen right on schedule. While no rain is forecast at least we will be back to seasonable temps. By the end of the week we shall see what the future holds, may even have to water.
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Post by paulf on Jul 18, 2024 9:52:33 GMT -5
Some of the larger varieties are beginning to ripen. Below is Maggie Mater and Big Lou (a Domingo cross) along with a NOT Willow's Bulgarian. Willow's is supposed to be a large pink beefsteak, in the past very excellent tomato. This year a mistake somewhere along the line. Not a bad cherry. And the beginning of thornless blackberries we have grown for about ten years. Along with cucumbers, green beans and onions and a lone Gypsy green pepper, that is what we are now harvesting. Yellow zucchini are about one inch long so we will have squash to eat and give away soon. ![](https://i.ibb.co/2yqfMpd/IMG-8717.jpg)
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Post by Hensaplenty on Jul 18, 2024 20:13:28 GMT -5
I know you were super happy to get those delicious looking maters! How did you prepare/eat them? :-) I have had a couple of tomato crosses show up this year, too.
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