re: 2019 Garden Thread

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Would a little high nitrogen fertilizer help or be harmful?

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Be careful with nitrogen and beans. They are a nitrogen fixing plant and will get almost all of what they need from the air. Adding more nitrogen to the soil MAY fire off massive growth with little bean production. Beans are generally light feeders. A light application of something like 5-10-10 should do the trick. Another note, don't pull up the roots at the end of the season when the plant dies. Till them under and you will have more nitrogen available for the next set of crops.

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Also, update re: bleach spray. I had two plants that had some type of fungal or bacterial issue. The bleach spray wiped it out completely. The affected parts of the leaves basically just dried up, but the leaves did not shrivel and die. Pretty encouraging in the event something serious pops up when it gets hotter.

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I'm thinking of giving this a try. I've been rotating daconil and mancozeb every other week, but I still seem to have some sort of bacterial of fungal problem creeping up. I'd like to get on top of it before it gets too bad.

Have you tried using this again? Good results?

I haven't had to since that post, and have had no fungal issues pop up yet. I've been using Serenade like once every ten days. After using it the first time though, I'm a believer. Would recommend. You could also try a peroxide mixture if you're not comfortable with bleach. I did that last fall and it wiped out bacterial spot on a tomato plant. I mixed it at 5oz of peroxide/gallon of water.

I mixed a half gallon of water with a 1/4 cup of bleach (8.25% SH), which is 2 ounces, and a couple drops of dish soap. Sprayed 1 plant and will monitor for a couple days. I’ll post an update on Sunday.

It’s really not that bad, but it’s bad enough to make me worry about it getting worse.

That’s the only way to explain it.

Seems like at least most of the leaves on it are at least a little bit affected.

ETA: On a positive note, cucumbers are taking off. And everything else is growing great. Even the tomatoes despite the slight foliage problems. The herb box is especially booming. Harvested a bunch of mint and my wife made some infused water. Tastes pretty darn refreshing.

Came home last night to caterpillars on one of my tomato plants. Tons of them but almost very tiny. Sprayed some bt last night, but when I woke up, they had eaten a bunch of the leaves. Does bt take some time to work?

I usually just use sevin and they are done quickly. I sprayed them again this morning.

Garden is coming along nicely after planting last week.

Cherokee purple are already blooming



Beans are sprouting

I think you are right.

I have not, but I only have five hot peppers and none that hot. My peppers actually transplanted better than all my other plants.

I usually find a bunch on my carport near the garden and put them back in the garden.