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Garden success this summer?

Garden success this summer?

Johnbisonbear
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 4183

Johnbisonbear
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 4183

Garden success this summer?
7/17/2016 at 3:31 PM

Hey fellow gardeners, I'm wondering if anybody has had good luck with their gardens this summer? Especially tomatoes? Mine seem to be small and not growing too fast this year?
Abbysmum
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 5039

Abbysmum
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 5039

tomatoes
7/17/2016 at 4:01 PM

The plants themselves are huge and healthy, but yeah, the fruit is small and slow coming. They need HEAT and sunshine at this point!!! I'm wondering if I need to start pinching the plants back now to get them to concentrate on the existing fruit.

My raspberries have been doing okay, not as good as last year but respectable. My apple tree had tons of apples on it initially, but we've had higher-than-normal windfall losses with all the storms recently.

Beans (as usual) are growing well, as are the snap peas. We've gotten one cucumber so far, and there's 2-3 that will be ready in the next couple of days. This is my first year with zucchini, and I've picked a couple of small ones so far with lots more coming... they're soooo good! We've had a good run on lettuce/greens too, but if the weather turns hot they'll bolt on me.

I have noticed that my dill, etc seem to be going to seed early this year, even though it seemed late coming up. My rhubarb also keeps trying to flower, silly thing. It's been such a weird year.
RobertMarks
Joined: This month
Posts: 324

RobertMarks
Joined: This month
Posts: 324

tomatoes and
7/17/2016 at 6:28 PM

Burpee 49 day 4 oz. tomatoes are looking really good. The tops are already pinched with each plant having 5 or six fruit stems. I think once a plant has sufficient fruit stems for the season you might as well prune it leaving at least 1 leaf stem above the highest fruit stem.

Burpee 65 day mini-fruit (cherry) are mostly pea size. They've yet to be pruned. (picture shows both Burpee varieties)

Manitobas, from a garden centre, which are not in full sun have smaller fruit, but it's still early. Manitobas shown in bed with chard and onion. Apparently we keep a gardening journal on ebrandon. Here's a link to last year. http://www.ebrandon.ca/messagethread.aspx?message_id=910433&cat_id=61&startnum=1#914580

The 2 successes:

New Zealand Spinach. Transplanted indoor seedling in the ground last year and had 3 leaves. This year I transplanted seedlings in to gallon pots kept in a small green house for 3 weeks then into larger containers. (The picture is of 3 plants)

Valiant Grapes: After 5 years it's finally been moved to a spot where the dog or I won't destroy it every spring.

Next year I plan on growing compari tomatoes from seeds already saved. I did this 8 years ago in BC and end up with 2 different but excellent strains.
curlysister
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2981

curlysister
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2981

hmmm
7/18/2016 at 4:20 PM

Only about half my corn came up, and almost no kale. Tomatoes and peppers are a bit behind. Cucumbers and zucchini are behind, both have flowers. Peas and beans coming along nicely. Carrots, potatoes, onions, and lettuce look great. Planted 'asparagus peas' that someone gave us the seeds, they have flowers on them. Transplanted a bunch of strawberry plants to move the patch, and they are doing great. Raspberries got flooded out a couple of years ago, new patch planted last year are looking good. Evans cherries and Nanking cherries have huge crops. Apples look small, but lots of them.
Never_give_up
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 362

Never_give_up
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 362

Hmmm
7/19/2016 at 6:02 AM

My tomato plants are bigger than any I have ever had. They are currently loaded with smallish green tomatoes and still lots of flowers. But I planted them later this year than usual. It was somewhere between June 5 - 10. So I'm not overly concerned yet. Cucumbers are at the same place, huge but really just at the flowering stage.

Red potatoes were planted about 5 days before Yukon gold. Have been eating both for about a week and a half. The reds are already really big. Yukons are smaller but am enjoying eating them.

Corn is about waste high and looks really good. Onions are developing well, pulled one and it was decent size.

Spinach and kale didn't produce. Carrots appear small. Parsnips didn't germinate well, think I might have about 6.

Zucchini is really slow. Plants are a decent size, but not much going on, on the vine.

Here's hoping for some heat!
Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Crops
7/21/2016 at 8:20 AM

Got a first look at mine after 3 weeks away...

- in that time Evans cherries have gone from little rock solid green nothings to plump, red and edible (some don't like the sourness right off the tree, to me it tastes like summer ). Battle of patience with the birds is on to see how long I can leave them on the tree before they swarm it. On the lookout for what I believe was the fruit fly that I noticed around this time last year. Interesting to note was at a garden in Saskatoon about 2 1/2 weeks ago and their Evans was way ahead... I'd say at the stage mine in Brandon is at now.

- first year of Romeo cherries. Went from bright red and very sour when we left to dark red and already a decent amount of sweetness now. From what I gather they arent supposed to be ripe for a few more weeks so will wait them out... Would be interested to hear from anyone else growing the same cherry

- Also first year for Crimson Passion cherry producing. Have really plumped up in the three weeks. The pics I've seen of them ripe have them still quite a bit darker than they are now so won't be touching for at least a couple weeks.

- Valiant grapes have a heavy crop but at least another month to go. Can still taste the pure juice they made from last year, hoping for more than a glass this time :)

- Norkent apples I'd say doubled in size over the three weeks. Tree starting to lean from the weight of apples, this after I thinned it out before I left. Still a young dwarf tree, taste so good when ripe that am going to try to leave as many on as I can for when they're ready in a few weeks.
curlysister
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2981

curlysister
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2981

wow
7/21/2016 at 12:55 PM

Wow, Adam, you have a really cherry farm going! I have Evans cherries, and they are pretty much finished. Made 2 batches of jam, one batch of cherry brandy, and gave away a few buckets (as well as the birds having their fill). Are Romeo and Crimson Passion, sweeter than the Evans? What do you do with all your cherries?
coffeefan
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 2101

coffeefan
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 2101

...
7/22/2016 at 11:33 AM

Hail took a big toll on our garden. :-(

Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam

Joined: Mar 2005

Posts: 15663

Cherries

7/22/2016 at 12:14 PM

curlysister said "Wow, Adam, you have a really cherry farm going! I have Evans cherries, and they are pretty much finished. Made 2 batches of jam, one batch of cherry brandy, and gave away a few buckets (as well as the birds having their fill). Are Romeo and Crimson Passion, sweeter than the Evans? What do you do with all your cherries? "

Ya its become a bit of a hobby... and that doesnt count the Juliets that should hopefully produce next year Except Evans they're all dwarfs but should still have quite the crop in a year or two between them all as they grow out. I figure the more I grow the more that's left after the birds. Sky's the limit as far as eating off tree, putting through the juicer, jams, freezing for winter or maybe will get brave and try a wine.

Evans seems to be king for buckets upon buckets you can get off a mature tree but sounds like a full size Romeo tree/bush could get 25+ lbs. CP, Romeo and sounds like Juliet win out on taste when they're ripe and CP especially are supposed to be quite a bit bigger fruit at full size. To give an idea on sweetness, the brix ratings:

Evans: 13
Juliet: 20
CP: 22
Romeo: 22

Still sour cherries and arent going to be as good or as big as what comes out of the Okanagan, but in terms of sugar to give an idea the good BC sweet cherries are I think 23-24 Brix

How big is your Evans? Figure I'm going to have to stay on top of pruning if ours gets as big as one that's down the street from us..

Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Valiant
8/19/2016 at 10:18 AM

Curious if anyone with valiant grapes has harvested yet? To the eye ours look ripe but feel like the taste could use the heat wave next week..
Brenda..
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 9544

Brenda..
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 9544

cherries
8/19/2016 at 10:30 AM

we had some beautiful cherries on our tree, but the birds got well fed.
nat.
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 77

nat.
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 77

valiant
8/19/2016 at 10:55 AM

I tried one of our valiants last week and it was pucker city - husband tried one last night and said it had a bit of sweetness to it. I'm thinking we'll leave them a bit longer. This is only our second year with them, it's the first year grapes actually grew.

We also have a couple cherry bushes, they are nanking - we lost almost all of them to birds last year but this year I hung a wind chime in the actual bush and we had a lot of fruit to ourselves.

Our raspberries did really well and we didn't seem to have the same fruit fly issue we had last year, or at least to the same extreme.

We didn't get any veg in, but we have a lot of fruit on the go - rhubarb, plum and apple trees. Hoping to make a batch of rhubarb/raspberry/cherry wine with all that we've frozen throughout the summer
foxtrot11
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2688

foxtrot11
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2688

Tough year
8/19/2016 at 11:40 AM

I usually have amazing tomatoes but this year they are all leaves and hardly any fruit. I finally had two ripe ones yesterday.

Peppers have been excellent. I have canned tons of jalapeños and salsa peppers.

Nankings finally bounced back this year after that May 2012 storm nearly killed them.

Even my petunias have sucked this year- not plush and full like usual and I have really had to constantly dead head the seeds.

Grapes are going berserk though. I will have to get on making jelly.....
Odd year.
whatthewhat
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 297

whatthewhat
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 297

peacocks
8/19/2016 at 12:03 PM

the peacocks are eating my tomatoes - I was looking forward to a great crop - but will have to wait and see what they leave me - lol - yes, it is a challenge this year - had 1 red pepper - still have alot of green ones hanging, herbs are doing wonderful, as are the onions - very interesing to read about all your cherries Adam - I have always wanted to try those, and grapes - might have to do that next year -
Abbysmum
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 5039

Abbysmum
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 5039

Frustrating
8/19/2016 at 1:14 PM

Lots of tomatoes, but they're smallish. Delicious though! Some blossom end rot if I leave them on the vine too long, but otherwise they're doing okay.

Zucchini has been plagued with mildew that I can't seem to get rid of. Yield is way down from what I anticipated.

Most of my peppers didn't even produce. I have 1 green pepper, 2 hot peppers and about 5 sweet hungarians. That's all that was produced in about 12 plants.

Beans and peas leaves were eaten by something. Kale was also infested and eaten.

Pumpkin made gazillions of blooms, but I only can see one, solitary pumpkin.

Apples are ready to be picked, that's tomorrow's project. The few apples left on the tree after all the wind losses are nice and big, however.
Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Valiant
8/19/2016 at 3:20 PM

nat: Am just happy that the fruit flies don't seem to like Valiant (knock on wood)... I gather that exact type of fruit fly is known to like some varieties of grape. It was right around the 1st of September last year that we pulled them off the vine. It took about an ice cream bucket worth of grapes to get a glass to a glass and a half of pure juice, but bar-none the best juice of my life..... basically an even richer Welches. Might chance diluting with a bit of water this year and see how far I can stretch it!
whatthewhat: they're a super easy grape to grow, though have found I do have to spray a bit to get the bugs to lay off of the leaves.
foxtrot: what recipe do you use for your jelly?

foxtrot11
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2688

foxtrot11

Joined: Feb 2009

Posts: 2688

What end of town

8/19/2016 at 3:24 PM

Abbysmum said "Lots of tomatoes, but they're smallish. Delicious though! Some blossom end rot if I leave them on the vine too long, but otherwise they're doing okay.

Zucchini has been plagued with mildew that I can't seem to get rid of. Yield is way down from what I anticipated.

Most of my peppers didn't even produce. I have 1 green pepper, 2 hot peppers and about 5 sweet hungarians. That's all that was produced in about 12 plants.

Beans and peas leaves were eaten by something. Kale was also infested and eaten.

Pumpkin made gazillions of blooms, but I only can see one, solitary pumpkin.

Apples are ready to be picked, that's tomorrow's project. The few apples left on the tree after all the wind losses are nice and big, however. "

Do you live in? Just curious if micro climates have had much to do with garden trends this year or if it is just an odd year for all. As I mentioned though, I have never had a better year for salsa and jalpeno peppers - I have four of each plant and have canned a dozen jars already, with at least that many more I need to get on this weekend....(and they are right beside my tomatoes, where I usually grow them)

I have not had any issues with blossom end rot (nor cut worms) since I began saving all my egg shells through the year and crushing them into fine shards and mixing it in to our tomato patch. Tomatoes like the calcium, that is for sure.

This year we had a strange blight that took half the leaves off the bottom of the tomatoes though - one I have never seen before. The leaves turned yellow with brown blotches. I pruned them all off and it did not return. Curious if anyone has a suggestion as to what that might have been??

I have heard that tomatoes can become "tired" if you do not rotate the area they are in...like the soil needs a crop rotation every so often. I wonder if the six or seven years I have used the same planter might have something to do with it too.

Maybe I should plant a legume in that planter next year...

Anyone have thoughts on that?

whatthewhat
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 297

whatthewhat
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 297

also
8/19/2016 at 3:31 PM

just want to add, my peas have all shrivelled up and died - as "someone" has not been watering them - and I would love to learn more about growing the grapes - how do you have them trellised? and - did you stomp on your grapes Adam to get all the juice from them??? lol - just having fun ........... how many grape plants do you have to grow together - do they need to cross pollinate? and what did you spray them with?
Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Juice
8/19/2016 at 9:46 PM

Wont profess to be an expert so maybe someone else will chime in with their experiences... but can definitely say that one vine will fruit a ton on its own (no cross pollinating or anything). They're super easy to propagate from cuttings if you know of anyone that has one, just keep in mind you're supposed to send in 20 cents for every one you do since they're a patented variety.

Rigged up my own trellace with dollar store wire to train it to grow where I wanted, but they definitely love chain link fence if you have.

Pretty much just followed this for juice:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/making_grape_juice/
Have a few more vines on the go (love the landscaping value). Imagine as they mature out one might have to get a little more creative if working with that quantity of fruit!
JustinfromMWC
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 61

JustinfromMWC
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 61

Watermelon...
8/19/2016 at 11:39 PM

Frustrating to say the least.... Plant is big but watermelon fruit are small and some keep getting rotten and falling off of the vine....

I think its just been too short of a growing season and not enough hot days and sunshine for them.

Abbysmum
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 5039

Abbysmum

Joined: Mar 2009

Posts: 5039

micro climate

8/20/2016 at 10:51 AM

foxtrot11 said "

Abbysmum said "Lots of tomatoes, but they're smallish. Delicious though! Some blossom end rot if I leave them on the vine too long, but otherwise they're doing okay.

Zucchini has been plagued with mildew that I can't seem to get rid of. Yield is way down from what I anticipated.

Most of my peppers didn't even produce. I have 1 green pepper, 2 hot peppers and about 5 sweet hungarians. That's all that was produced in about 12 plants.

Beans and peas leaves were eaten by something. Kale was also infested and eaten.

Pumpkin made gazillions of blooms, but I only can see one, solitary pumpkin.

Apples are ready to be picked, that's tomorrow's project. The few apples left on the tree after all the wind losses are nice and big, however. "

Do you live in? Just curious if micro climates have had much to do with garden trends this year or if it is just an odd year for all. As I mentioned though, I have never had a better year for salsa and jalpeno peppers - I have four of each plant and have canned a dozen jars already, with at least that many more I need to get on this weekend....(and they are right beside my tomatoes, where I usually grow them)

I have not had any issues with blossom end rot (nor cut worms) since I began saving all my egg shells through the year and crushing them into fine shards and mixing it in to our tomato patch. Tomatoes like the calcium, that is for sure.

This year we had a strange blight that took half the leaves off the bottom of the tomatoes though - one I have never seen before. The leaves turned yellow with brown blotches. I pruned them all off and it did not return. Curious if anyone has a suggestion as to what that might have been??

I have heard that tomatoes can become "tired" if you do not rotate the area they are in...like the soil needs a crop rotation every so often. I wonder if the six or seven years I have used the same planter might have something to do with it too.

Maybe I should plant a legume in that planter next year...

Anyone have thoughts on that? "

I'm in Riverheights. With the amount of storms we've had this year, I wouldn't be surprised if we were set up for microclimates - just yesterday I drove from my house to Knox Church at Vic & 18th and back to pick up my daughter around 4 o'clock, and it was pouring rain between 34th & my destination, but once you got west of 34th again it barely rained in comparison.

I've had that with the tomatoes too. They plants are dying off very early this year, and I'm hesitant to can them because you're not really supposed to can from damaged plants. I rotate my tomatoes every year, and some are in brand-new garden/soil/containers so I know it's not tired. I put my eggshells in my compost and generally my plants do really, really well.

I've noticed this year that fruits will start growing, but then just stop and fall off the plant (or just stop and stay tiny and rot on the plant)! Zucchini, cucs, tomatoes and peppers all did that! It's so weird, I've never experienced anything like that. My grandmother in Winnipeg also noticed that this year, she's 85, grew up on the farm and ALWAYS has a garden, and she never recalls plants doing that either.

I blame the weather.

Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Rain differences
8/23/2016 at 10:32 AM

Re rain differences, comparing the West Brandon rain gauge with the South Brandon gauge the rain has been nearly identical since mid-May. South is showing 329.9mm and West 331.8mm... granted West is close to but not quite in Riverheights.

The wind ahead of the little storm this morning forced first apple drop on the Norkent tree. Taste buds say it's time to go picking
foxtrot11
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2688

foxtrot11
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2688

Grapes
8/23/2016 at 11:58 AM

Guess I am going to start doing some research on what to do with them - we have TONS. The two vines we planted were slow to start but two years later they went bonkers.

Started out quite tart, but are slowly getting sweeter and have turned purple now. I have no idea what breed they are (I do have the card at home somewhere).

Anyone have experience with WHEN they need to be processed? The birds don't seem to be bothering them so I don't want to take them until absolutely necessary.

I do know some vineyards will let them get touched by frost before harvesting them - is that even something I should be attempting in Manitoba?

If I can get it right, they should make some very tasty jelly....
Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Grapes
8/28/2016 at 4:45 PM

Picked all of our grapes this weekend. 15-20 pounds ended up yielding about 3L of juice for drinking, popsicles, jelly. Super thick, rich stuff that still tastes great when split half and half with water. Little more toward the tart side compared to when I picked last year... guessing another week on the vine to get just a bit of extra sweetness!
Dr. Chim Richalds
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 36

Dr. Chim Richalds
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 36

Riverheights
8/28/2016 at 6:04 PM

Strange year for my garden, had cutworms or something mow down carrots, pumpkins, and beans as they came up. Replanted beans in time and they did great! Beets have lots of leaf but small. Potatoes did awesome as well as my surviving carrots. Peas were meh, corn is slooooowww. Tomatoes all had blight, died from bottom up. Zucchini, cucumbers, and pumpkin all had powdery mildew
curlysister
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2981

curlysister
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 2981

cherries
8/31/2016 at 12:20 PM

Adam, I planted a Juliet last night, and am getting a Romeo this weekend to keep her company! LOL! I am hoping they stay smaller than the Evans - my husband gets up on the roof of the garage to pick them!
Daniel123
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 18

Daniel123
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 18

jellybean
8/31/2016 at 5:52 PM

I planted 6 jellybean tomatoes this year and had great success with all of them! Plenty of sweet red fruit. Will be the only thing I grow from now on. They are better then any grape tomatoes I have had

Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
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Adam

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Posts: 15663

Cherries

8/31/2016 at 8:11 PM

curlysister said "Adam, I planted a Juliet last night, and am getting a Romeo this weekend to keep her company! LOL! I am hoping they stay smaller than the Evans - my husband gets up on the roof of the garage to pick them! "

Nice... Not sure how mature you bought but this was around the time I put our trees in the ground last year and they were already fruiting this year. Def will be more compact than Evans. Only thing to watch out for is suckering. My Crimson Passion took 4 years in the ground to get to the point where it's now sending up suckers 4-5 feet away in the lawn, but I gather not all varieties are as prone to it!

cotr
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 631

cotr
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 631

Rose Cherries
8/31/2016 at 8:43 PM

We have Evans cherries and Rose Cherries. The Rose cherries in our opinion are much better. Better tasting and no suckering.
DiD
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 223

DiD
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 223

Garden so far...
8/31/2016 at 10:15 PM

Tomatoes: cherries are small but delicious...big tomatoes ALL have some sort of blight or rot.
Squash: finally seeing some squash but it is way behind, and I planted way more than what actually came up.
Apples: so many!
Everything else is what I'd consider "normal".