2022 gardens

[Dotch]

I use the miracle grow when I think of it.

Once the mater's start showing fruit I put a tablespoon of Epsom salt by the stem about every 3-4th watering. I was told the epsom salt and miracle grow are about one and the same??

Oh and I gotz little mater's starting.

Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. It's commonly found in much of the well water when one moves west, like the area of ND where I lived. When I'd stop at a farmer's place and they made coffee with that stuff, it tasted like someone had dumped a salt shaker in it. And as Barry is fond of saying, no stool softener needed! Unless it's blow sand, most MN soils are loaded with magnesium so it's possible you may be seeing some sulfur response especially in a cooler season when less sulfur is converted to sulfate sulfur, the forms plants take up. We're seeing a visual response here on corn this year, especially in lower organic matter areas of fields.

Replanted 3 hills of cukes; 2 with Straight 8's & one with Munchers. Pretty dry so watered them in after planting. Weeded the Indian corn, tomatoes & peppers tonite. They're lovin' this heat. Upped our forecast rainfall chances and amounts for tomorrow nite so hoping to get my pasture fertilized tomorrow forenoon. Will throw 85-46-120-24 on the garden as I cruise by so getting some substantial rain would definitely be beneficial.   

[KEN W]

I have been picking off 1 leaf at a time as they get bigger. Instead of pulling the whole plant.

Soak them in water for an hour to crisp them up. Just squeeze out as much water as you can so it doesn't dilute down the dressing. The first thing we always did in the morning when I worked in produce at a big grocery store was to soak heads of Romaine.

[glenn57]

I use the miracle grow when I think of it.

Once the mater's start showing fruit I put a tablespoon of Epsom salt by the stem about every 3-4th watering. I was told the epsom salt and miracle grow are about one and the same??

Oh and I gotz little mater's starting.

Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. It's commonly found in much of the well water when one moves west, like the area of ND where I lived. When I'd stop at a farmer's place and they made coffee with that stuff, it tasted like someone had dumped a salt shaker in it. And as Barry is fond of saying, no stool softener needed! Unless it's blow sand, most MN soils are loaded with magnesium so it's possible you may be seeing some sulfur response especially in a cooler season when less sulfur is converted to sulfate sulfur, the forms plants take up. We're seeing a visual response here on corn this year, especially in lower organic matter areas of fields.

Replanted 3 hills of cukes; 2 with Straight 8's & one with Munchers. Pretty dry so watered them in after planting. Weeded the Indian corn, tomatoes & peppers tonite. They're lovin' this heat. Upped our forecast rainfall chances and amounts for tomorrow nite so hoping to get my pasture fertilized tomorrow forenoon. Will throw 85-46-120-24 on the garden as I cruise by so getting some substantial rain would definitely be beneficial. 

i should look at that soil sample to see what it says.  all i know is since i started my epson salt routine on my maters i cut that blossom end rot on the maters down to almost zilch!!!!!!!

thanks for that insite dotch!!! 

[Dotch]

Got little maters on a lot of our plants too. Didn't check to see which varieties they were. The health of all the plants has been really good thus far. A little indication that the striped gophers were in the sweet corn I planted day before yesterday. Had some gopher bait I supplied them with so hopefully that gets their attention. Not enough time to sit and shoot them all.

[glenn57]

so i looked at the soil same test results i got back last Aug.

the magnesuim said high side of optimum/maganese was high end of high.
phosopherous was extremely high
ph was optinum
potasium was high
calcium was high
zinc was highboran??? was optomum as was the sulfur!!!!!

[Dotch]

Testing for nitrogen or sulfur is difficult. Both nutrients are moving targets. Labs routinely run it but the sulfur soil test is only of some value on sandy soils. On the rest of the soils in MN, not so much. It measures what's there on the day you sampled. A heavy rain or watering can change that one overnight & leach it down farther into the soil profile. It can also read high but if the soil is dry, it's  unavailable as roots won't grow in soils that are too dry. Good to know they considered the boron to be optimum. It doesn't take a lot & applying too much boron if not needed can lead to toxicity on broadleaf plants such as beans. Boron was being promoted as a herbicide for lawns a few years back. Worked sorta half- fast.

[glenn57]

The instructions I got was to take samples from 7-8 different spots in my garden, put it in a container and mix it up well. I don't recall exactly how much I had to send in but it wasn't a huge amount. So it was essentially a sample of the garden in general!

[Dotch]

I'm sure you did the sampling procedure right. It's pretty hard to screw it up unless you have too many of those beers that db keeps talking about.

Transplanted some volunteer 4 o'clocks this a.m. to fill in a couple gaps in this year's planting. The hummingbirds were chirping their approval from the trees. Found a LGW (little green worm) crawling across the garden so stuffed it into the wren house. The adults weren't thrilled about it but there were definitely some happy campers inside their house. 

[glenn57]

garden really looks good after this last rain.  seems like the heat kick started everything then the rain kicked the growing in high gear!!!!

except for the jalapeno peppers??? they seem stunted. i dont think they've grown but 2 inches so far?????

[glenn57]

Got me some baby mater's. These are campori mater's!!

[Dotch]

Started to see some cucumbers emerging this a.m. that were planted the night of the 22nd. Straight 8's so far but looks like the soil is pushing up in the hills of Munchers as well. Will have to get mentally prepared to plant string beans for the fall crop next week.

[KEN W]

Started eating both Sugar Snap and regular peas. Lots of Romaine and red lettuce. Pulling out green onions to eat. Bok Choi in stir fry tonight.

Picking 2 ice cream buckets of strawberries every other day. Wife started making strawberry jelly today. My youngest grandson eats more than he puts in the bucket.

Picked my first ripe tomato yesterday....a yellow Taxi.

[roony]

Love them pea pods!

[LPS]

Are they a climbing thing?  My wife liked them as a kid.  We need to plant some next year. We need a bigger garden I think.

[KEN W]

Yes.....I plant all my peas in an 8 inch wide row om both sides of a page fence anchored on electric fence posts. They climb up the fence on their own make for easier picking. My grandkids love them dipped in Ranch dressing.

[KEN W]

Garden looking good. For some reason they are all upside down????

Broccoli, Cauliflower. Tomatoes in my big garden

4 twenty foot rows of strawberries

My corn.....4-6 twenty foot rows planted 2 weeks apart. Last one goes in tomorrow

First 2 ripe tomatoes.....yellow Taxi

[KEN W]

Grandson with 4 buckets picked yesterday. I think he ate as many as went into the pail.

[deadeye]

Smart kid you got there I'd say.

[LPS]

Nice garden Ken. 

[Cooperman]

First harvest of the year! Our new garden this year we have tomatoes, pepper (green and jalapeños), snap peas, bush beans, radishes, carrots, onions, beets, cucumbers, chives, dill, and outside the garden we have rhubarb and asparagus. Everything is doing great except the carrots?
We have a 40 acre farm 1/2 mile down the road from the lake place. That is where the garden is.
Not as nice as Glenn’s or Ken’s, but it will get there?

[LPS]

That is darn nice I would say.  We have never planted dill and one year some appeared along the barn which is where the garden is.  This year it is really going nuts.  It is almost covering a tomato plant so will have to do something about it.  Maybe I will transplant it to where the carrots aren't doing so well.  May come in handy around pickling time.

[KEN W]

Looks good to me. 

[roony]

Looks better than Glenn's.

[mike89]

Looks better than Glenn's.

roony has all the right answers!!! 

[Dotch]

Was at a gathering yesterday and my adopted 92 year old mom was there. She told me her cats had been using her raised beds as a litterbox and destroyed most of her vegetable crop. She had no tomatoes, string beans & zucchini. Told her not to worry, we can help her out plus some squash barring disaster on this end. Today's roughly 1.5" of rain should help make that order easier to fill. 

[LPS]

So cat poop isn't good fertilizer evidently. 

[Dotch]

She has a bunch of cats so it was the holes they dug to deposit their poop mainly. 

[mike89]

Cat "manure" is dangerous for the gardener. Though there's not much harm done to the soil chemistry if your garden becomes your cat's bathroom, cat poop can contaminate soil with disease. So don't leave it in your garden.

found this

[roony]

MEOW!

[mike89]

get out of the garden!!!!   bang!!!!!