2023 Gardens

[KEN W]

These are yellow and orange watermelons. The one on the right is a 20 pounder. Still can't seemd to get these pics right side up!!!

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[tangle tooth]

      Has anyone else noticed a lack of those beautiful yellow and black garden spiders? I've looked around our gardens, wildflowers and milkweed patches. Only seen 3 all year.
      Has it maybe been too hot or dry for them?

[Dotch]

Guess I've never seen them in our garden, around the yard, or in the CRP here. Doesn't mean they haven't been there, just not noticed. I did see more than in recent years in area corn & soybean fields this summer. We always have a boatload of large barn spiders that help keep the fly population in check.

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[Bobberineyes]

No spiders here, thank God. Not sure bout you guys but we sure had alotta rot on our veggies this year.  2 out of the 6 mater plants have had lotsa bottom end rot, right along with half of the bell peppers and 2 jalapeno plants. Early on we had zookini that started rotting but they turned around.  Is it the heat?  I thought I watered when I needed to but maybe the watering didn't get deep enough???

[tangle tooth]

      Spiders and snakes are welcome here.
      We had a couple of tomato plants go bad early on the season. We pulled them. We had a big problem with grasshoppers. Is that the same as locust?
      Anyway, small garden is ready to get tilled. Middle garden has only potatoes and the big garden has only tomatoes, habaneros, jalapenos, hot banana and bell peppers. Season is winding down.

[Dotch]

Spider, snake, toad & beneficial insect fan here. Aside from a few with cracks on top, remarkably beautiful tomatoes so far. Watered initially but once they got rolling, I left them alone. We had pretty good subsoil moisture & must've got rain about when they really needed it. Squash, gourd and pumpkin vines are starting to cash it in. They had a good summer and strip tilled in, once they got rolling they had moisture. I have one row of radishes that made it and a few in another one. Bet they'll be nasty with all this heat. 2nd planting of sweet corn is especially tasty since the first heatwave pushed the 1st planting too hard while I was gone.   

[KEN W]

Bobber.....did you put mulch around your tomato and pepper plants? Doing that helps keep moisture level more consistent. I always put straw around them once the fruit starts to appear. The plants can't get enough calcium. So they take it from the part that they don't need to survive.....that's the fruit. Causes blossom end rot.

Didn't have any blossom end rot at all this year.

[KEN W]

Processing tomatoes with a Weston Processor. This really makes it nice to take out the seeds and skins. Peice of cake.

Cooking down the sauce to thicken it.

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[Bobberineyes]

Bobber.....did you put mulch around your tomato and pepper plants? Doing that helps keep moisture level more consistent. I always put straw around them once the fruit starts to appear. The plants can't get enough calcium. So they take it from the part that they don't need to survive.....that's the fruit. Causes blossom end rot.

Didn't have any blossom end rot at all this year.

Yep I mulched everything, maybe try less watering and more calcium.  Not sure what that miracle grow has for nutrients but I'll had calcium next year,  thanks.

[KEN W]

Try adding crushed eggshells next time. They have a lot of calcium.

[Dotch]

MN is a big state with some of the most diverse soils & soil conditions in the country. What works here doesn't necessarily work somewhere else. I know under certain situations mulching is beneficial. The trouble is, it can be a double-edged sword. It can be difficult to know when to water and when to hold off. Too many of the gardeners locally with our heavy, sticky, clay loam soils get their butts in a sling by overwatering when they’ve also mulched. There’s a reason Bugtussle floods. It was built on a slough in a floodplain. Tomatoes don't like wet feet. Not only that, the soil pH tends to be high in places because of the free calcium carbonate the soil contains. Adding additional calcium carbonate isn’t going to help here. Now, use of eggshells or other sources of calcium such as calcium nitrate as the 2nd article suggests (good luck finding it out here in the hinterlands) might be beneficial under sandy soil conditions where clay is lacking and the soil pH is lower (acid). 

https://extension.umn.edu/manage-soil-nutrients/coffee-grounds-eggshells-epsom-salts#:~:text=It%27s%20true%20that%20blossom%20end%20rot%20is%20a,there%27s%20a%20water%20transport%20issue%20in%20your%20plants.

https://extension.umn.edu/news/blossom-end-rot-tomatoes-and-other-vegetable-crops

https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/cracks-rots-and-tough-spots-tomato-quality-issues

https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/tomato-disorders

[mike89]

so sampling the soil is a good idea then??  that's my guess any way... 

[Dotch]

Yes, that's a good place to start so you know some basic things about the fertility levels and makeup of your soil. I usually run the same things we run on our customers samples. It includes soil pH, buffer pH, organic matter (OM) Bray 1 phosphorus, Olson (bicarb) phosphorus, potassium (K), and zinc (Zn). Attached should be a copy of the small garden I sampled a few years ago. Not hard to do and the U has a testing lab that's handy for anyone living in the metro area. They can also help you with interpretation of levels and what fertilizers or other amendments are needed. I sample the garden areas every 3 - 4 years. People's garden soil samples are usually a blast to look at. If farmers had soil fertility levels as high as some of the samples people have had me submit, they would've gone broke long ago. My own samples are usually relatively mundane. This one however reflects on the amount of charcoal ash and leftover fertilizer from the wife's pots and planters that get dumped there every fall. Also some sheep manure from several years ago now.

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[tangle tooth]

      Dotch, you bring up some good points about soil.
      I have never given much thought to pH of the soil till late this season. I'm slow, don't laugh. I was at Drummers Garden Center in Mankato on Tuesday and bought a soil pH tester to see of our soil needs a little adjustment.
      Do most folks measure their soil pH and add any minerals to make it healthy for the flowers and veggies?

[mike89]

we used to use Minn Valley Testing when I was working in FSIS as a meat inspector.. 

[Dotch]

Yes tt, those that take the time to soil test usually do make an effort to correct deficiencies or amend the pH if called for. The recs for the various fruits & veggies can be downloaded online. Sometimes the issues are non-fertility related such as the strawberry patch the lady had that was getting too shaded & the trees were also pulling a lot of moisture away from the bed. Wouldn't matter how much fertilizer it needed, it was going to be unrewarding.

MN Valley has treated us well. They should. We send them lots of samples. Handy because they have a courier who picks up the samples from our office. Quick turnaround time, accurate results.They also do a lot of municipal well water testing among other things. I got to know the representative many moons ago when he worked for MDA. Good egg & very trustworthy. 

[Bobberineyes]

Interesting Dotch,  and thanks for the info.  I should probably do the same not only with the garden but our Blvd I can't get grass to grow at all, even the weeds are sparse, just dirt. Thanks!

[Steve-o]

I don't know nothing about agronomy, but I do remember seeing this picture (or ones similar) a lot when I worked with folks who did.  Yield is limited by the lowest stave in the barrel.



I have a lot of short staves in my little back yard garden barrel.   

[deadeye]

I did a little yard and garden work today. Tomatoes, cukes and peppers are still going strong.
Apples have overwhelmed the trees. Today I use a rake to strip the apples from the trees to prevent any more damage.
A couple trailer loads of should help some.





My wife trimmed the grape vines today. I enjoyed eating some grapes.


Some of what I picked in the garden this morning.


Fall flowers are really hitting their peak now.

[mike89]

deer will enjoy the apples!!!   

[KEN W]

Picked a bowl full of red seedless grapes this morning. Have 4-5 ice cream pails full.

Also picked a dozen ears of corn to put in the freezer. One more batch to be ready end of next week. Corn has really been good this year. Have been eating it almost continuously since last week of July.

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[LPS]

I just bought some red grapes on sale for $3.99 lb.  They got up to $6.29 lb a month or so ago.  I didn't buy any at that price.

[glenn57]

If anyone is interested in starting or expanding a winter onion patch I got plenty to share. Let me know.

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[LPS]

So Dotch.  I shouldn't just add ash to my garden without testing it first?  Or is ash good regardless?

[glenn57]

So Dotch.  I shouldn't just add ash to my garden without testing it first?  Or is ash good regardless?

be interested to see what Dotch says!!!!!

i add my firepit ash to the garden but for as big as my garden is it usually  is a pretty light distribution. i'll even spread it around in my lawn if i have extra. the ashes seem to help keep cutworms from showing up is what i was told.

usually every other year thing!!!1

[mike89]

from what I remember ash is good for a garden, spread lightly and worked in..   hope I'm right...   

[LPS]

I do use the ashes from burning wood to add to low spots around the place.   

[Dotch]

To answer your question Barry, applying ash probably won't hurt anything especially where you live as I suspect the soils tend to be relatively acid. Wood ash has a fairly high pH and once it comes in contact with moisture, can neutralize acidity as well as being a good source of potassium. There are some micronutrients in it as well. It also contains a fair amount of calcium which most soils in MN don't necessarily need. I was always taught by the soil science folks I worked with that by combusting organic materials, wood, crop residue, prairie grasses, etc., that the amount of nitrogen and sulfur left in the ash would be miniscule. In that regard, the 2nd article probably does a better job of accurately describing the end result of the chemical processes ash undergoes to neutralize acidic soils and the likely nutrient content. The 1st article gives some decent guidelines for application rates per square foot and which plants to be careful with such as blueberries. 

If you look at the soil test I posted a while back, you'll notice the pH is slightly above neutral at 7.6. The potassium level is also fairly high. Both measurements are likely the result of charcoal ash applications. A soil test is still the only way to know for sure what you've got for a benchmark. I've suspended dumping the charcoal ash in the small garden as a result. Now it's going on the pasture where it's unlikely to have much impact.   

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/using-wood-ash-in-the-home-garden/

https://onpasture.com/2021/06/28/using-wood-ash-to-improve-pasture-soils-and-forages/

[LPS]

Two good articles and appreciate the info from you.  Read it all.  Since I cut the wood I know it is clean wood.  I think I will spread a thin layer on the soil and work it in some.  That won't use much of my winter supply of ashes but is a great use for some of it.  I thank you for the info Dotch. 

[LPS]

This is sort of on topic cuz the house is near the garden.  lol  I saw a wasp each of the last two mornings sitting on lawn furniture warming up in the sun.  I watched where one went the other night and it flew right into the holes below the light in this pic.  A woodpecker must have made the holes.  ???   I will tell the wife she may want to clean the bugs out of those lights..