re: 2019 Garden Thread

Going to put green beans in the ground this year and try my hand at mirliton again. Probably will also do some tomatoes.

Re: the ghost peppers. Best of luck "toning them down."

I grew several varieties of super-hots for a few years. Healthiest plants in my garden, heavy late summer producers. Tried using the peppers several ways, and it was absolute torture (and l like hot stuff.)

Maybe somebody on the new garden forum will give you some advice.

Posting this really to let you guys know about a problem I'm dealing with, how I'm handling it, and to keep tabs on the results.

I try to start my tomato seeds about 8-9 weeks prior to plant out. This year, that went a little long. I planted them out yesterday finally, but they were way too big and should've gone out like a week ago. They get started in a 1/3 peat moss, worm castings, and perlite mix, then potted up after about 4 weeks to regular potting mix. This year I used Happy Frog bag mix. Last year, because it was available, I used my container mix (1/3 peat moss, compost, and vermiculite). Last year, the tips of the leaves on the lower branches of a few of my seed starts seemed to be drying out, and the leaf would eventually wither up and die. I was concerned about it at first because I had no idea what was going on, but I wrote it off as the soil being too hot/over fertilization, or moisture problems. The problem went away when I planted the seed starts out into their final containers.

This year, a couple of the varieties I started began doing the same thing when I potted them up. I ignored it at first, assuming it was the same thing as last year. About a week went by, and what seemed to be the same thing started happening to a couple cucumber and zucchini starts. The issue did not affect my pepper starts. Then, I started noticing all these little gnats flying around the seed trays. I read about them, and apparently, they lay eggs in the soil, the larvae feeds on the roots which can a.) inhibit growth, and b.) cause fungus, and then they come to the surface, fly away, and start all over again.

So, I watered the affected plants with a diluted peroxide mixture, and set a cup of apple cider vinegar by the seed starts. I also had to prune some of the affected plants significantly - like leaving only a couple branches towards the top of the plants. I figured the peroxide mix would also eliminate any problems with the Happy Frog mix, because I know it has bacteria in it already. This seemed to help the problem a bit, and also seemed to spur some growth in the seed starts, but it didn't solve it completely. It definitely seemed to knock the problem back to the level I was dealing with last year, so I just went ahead and planted the plants in the garden and will watch over the next week or so to see what comes of it.

I was googling some tomato problems last night, and I think there is a possibility that what I've been dealing with might actually be grey mold. I screenshotted a post from a tomato growing forum by a guy who swears by using a bleach/water mixture to fight any foliage related diseases (including early blight). I have not tried it, but if my problem persists I'm going to give it a shot. Last fall, I used a peroxide mixture to fight what I thought was bacterial leaf spot, and it worked very well (10 tbsp peroxide to 1 gallon of water), so I may give that a shot first.

His mixture depends on what type of bleach you have. Apparently, the new Clorox concentrate is 8.25% sodium hypochlorite, and he mixes 5 ounces of unscented Clorox with 1 gallon of water, and a few drops of dish soap to break up the mix. There is an older version of Clorox that is 6% sodium hypochlorite, and for that he uses 7 ounces per gallon. He says to spray late in the day when the sun has gone down to avoid leaf burn, and that basically, the solution will kill any spores on the plant...even the ones you can't see. I read through his thread (not a member there so I can't post), but some people were going on and on about how well the mixture worked in combating fungus and bacteria. Numerous posts in the thread also said that initially, you may think you've burned the plant with the spray, but the reality is there are just a lot of fungal or disease issues that you can't see, and any leaves affected by those issues will shrivel up and die.

Anyway, like I said, I haven't tried this yet and hopefully my plants take off without any further issue. He also stressed the importance of getting ahead of the problem and not waiting until it's too late to fix, so if the problem does keep on, I will try the bleach mix above on the affected plants and let you guys know how it goes.

I think I may have read that exact thread before.

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bleach/water mixture to fight any foliage related diseases

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It makes sense. I’ve always thought that it was a last resort thing. My plants would have to get really bad in order for me to try it. Cause you’ll be killing the good bacteria and microorganisms along with the bad. So I’ve always tried to go the preventative route. Understandably, sometimes that isn’t enough.

I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with grey mold (knock on wood). Hopefully I won’t ever have to. But if you resort to doing this, definitely let us know your method and how it works out.

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PillageUrVillage

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I wouldn't be surprised. Seems to be a super popular tomato board. I have also read about the bleach before and always thought it was viewed as a last resort type deal, but this guy swears that it's not. My plants are also not currently really bad, except for one, which I didn't plant out anyway. I may use it as an experimental plant in case one of my garden transplants dies. We will see how it goes. Regardless, I'd like to let my plants get established outside before I spray them with anything that has the potential to knock them back at all. I'll keep the thread posted with the results one way or another.

How comparable are the instant "probe in the ground" ph test sets?

Also, how long would it take for freeze damage to show up on citrus trees and blueberry bushes? I put in 4 bushes and a satsuma about 2 weeks before this freeze this week. I haven't seen any effects so far though. They were all well established in pots prior.

The 2 apples are still dormant so I would assume they are fine?

The blueberries will be fine only thing that may happen is the blooms will be knocked off.

ETA: Fruits like peaches, apples, plum and blueberries need freeze and chill hours to get the best production

Satsuma is the most freeze hardy citrus so they should also be ok.

My blood oranges and sweet Hamlin showed burned leaves immediately

Working on it now. A little windy, but an otherwise beautiful day!

Just got done putting in

12 cherokee purples
12 bradywines
12 big rainbows
10 mortgage lifters
8 green zucchini
8 yellow zucchini
2 yellow squash (the seed for them has been awful)

Ground is still wet, but this looks like the only day until next sunday with sunshine.

I've still got 36 more heirlooms ready to go and 105 to step up.

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Raining yet again here.

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I’m getting pretty sick of the constant rain.