re: The 2021 Garden Thread

Did you buy the Bonnie variety? That's what I always get

How strict is everyone on pruning suckers?

Because of the nitrogen deficiency early on, most of the main stalks on the plants died where they were so I let the suckers on the next branch below take over. I probably have 2 or 3 suckers going up each plant now. I went out there last week and realized I hadn’t pruned any at all so had to do a big job of cutting back.

I guess I’ll just keep it limited to the 2-3 stems then.

Also, I ended up going nuclear on my beans. I checked yesterday and the last 2 sprouts I had were goners. I picked up the fallen leaves and turned them over and found aphids and some type of ant. I ended up making a pass with talstar over the mulch where my next set of bean sprouts were coming up. May be overkill but oh well. I’m fed up with losing the sprouts at this point. In a perfect world it will be enough to keep bugs away while they sprout again but won’t kill anything as they get taller and grow away from the ground.

In the past I’ve always pruned suckers the whole time. It seems like they can get way too bushy and restrict airflow into the plant if you completely stop. Circulation is pretty key.

Since I’ve got more than one main stem, I’m cutting branches trying to sprout towards the middle of the plant too. Unless it’s fruiting branches.

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Circulation is pretty key.

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Well the only thing I’ve pruned in the last 2 weeks is bottom leaves that touch the soil. I already have a tangled mess.

My strawberries are slowing down. Not many flowers now that it’s getting hot. I imagine they’ll start sending runners soon. But this is probably the most I’ve picked at one time.


Looks like the olive tree has some olives growing. Hoping they do well and make a lot. I’d love to make my own olive oil.


I started using that Sea Grow fertilizer yesterday. Will update on how it goes after a few weeks. Didn’t get near as much rain yesterday as they were projecting, so that’s good.

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How long do y’all prune suckers?

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The whole season. I go with the single vine approach (obviously because of the number of plants I have). The second a sucker pops up it gets pinched off. Missed one on one of my creole plants and it was damn-near bigger than the main top. Pruning suckers is important especially when plants fruiting.

I prune the suckers on my indeterminate tomato plants down to 2 or 3 main vines. Here are some photos from late last week.

Cucumbers. The little leaf ones are starting to grow better but they sure are goofy looking. I guess we'll see how they produce.



Squash/zucchini/cucumber harvest from the other day:



Jimmy nardello plant that I'm going to try to overwinter:



Big jalapeno:



Fred's tie dye:



Cherokee Purples:



Large barred boar:



Carmen Peppers:



Islanders:



Peppers:



Zephyr Squash. Very cool plant and has been very productive thus far:



Main box:





A note from a new practice this year. With my peppers, I normally pinch off the first couple of flowers to encourage plant growth. I did not do that this year. I've noticed that my pepper plants are much smaller as compared to this time last year, but the peppers on my plants are huge. I'm sure the plants will catch up in size once I harvest the first round of peppers. To be honest I kind of like that they are smaller. Easier to deal with.

I would just because they look a bit unruly and they're close together. Increasing airflow is good.