July 24th Update

Its almost the end of July, and its starting to get pretty hot.  Officially I don't think we hit 100 yet, we've been at 99 the last few days, but we might the next few days.  After a very wet early summer, we have dried up pretty good. It hasn't rained in about three or more weeks, and I've having to water pretty often now.

Cucumbers

The cucumber have done amazing this year.  These are the dual-purpose slicer/pickling cukes I got last year from Gurney's. I've had tons of cucumbers and have had to give many way to friends and family, plus have pickled some.  I've had to water these quite a bit to keep them producing.  The A-shaped trellis I made has worked really good.  Its been real easy to see and pick the cucumbers.

Unfortunately the cucumber beetles are showing up in good numbers, both striped and spotted. These are very hard to deal with organically.  I try and catch and kill them whenever I get a chance but there are so many.

typical day's harvest of cucumbers

Squash/Pumpkins

My previous post I talked about the yellow crookneck squash started under the tulle netting to keep out squash vine borers (SVB) and squash bugs.  They are doing very well now. I had to put a bigger piece of tulle on them, and they are about to outgrow that.  Fortunately the aphids have not been a problem yet, so they are pretty much pest free.

yellow crookneck squash under tulle netting

The female flower are coming in good now.  Since I have them under covers, I need to hand-pollinate them. The past few days every morning when I get up I go out and pollinate them by lifting the cover, and then tucking in the cover when I am done.  Despite the heat, they are producing now! Here is  the first one, a siamese twin one...one side grew more than the other, so its looks kinda funny.  I have another siamese twin one growing that should be ready to pick soon, and there are more on the way.

my first crookneck squash of the year.

I had also mentioned before a volunteer pumpkin plant.  That plant has grown like crazy.  Its definitely a C. Pepo variety, but not sure if its a sugar pie pumpkin.  The SVB are definitely around now. They have been laying eggs like crazy on this lone plant.  Every other day I will check for eggs, and pick them off, and I have also been burying the vines.  The plant has forked into about 5 growing tips, and just started blooming male flowers.  I also just started preventative BT injections into the older leaf stalks, just in case I missed an egg.

Peppers

Last post I discussed the peppers I had planted.  The plants are doing very well now and starting to produce.  Like I said, since the hot peppers were a mixture I am not sure what I have exactly. But the plants do look different.  The CostaRican sweet pepper plants have bigger leaves.   Here are some of the hot peppers that are now producing.

this looks like a cayenne pepper

not sure what this is, looks like a small jalapeno.

I did see one pepper on the CostaRican sweet pepper.  They do have a lot of flowers otherwise. Looking forward to see how these do.

Birdhouse Gourd

The birdhouse gourd plants have grown quite a bit now and have started covering the top of the trellis I made.  They have also been producing fruit.  I have about 3 good size gourds, and about 4 smaller ones now.

I've noticed as they have started producing fruit, they have really slower down their growth.  They have beautiful flowers that open at night, and in the late morning are pretty much gone.  Since its been so dry and hot lately I have had no problems with powdery mildew yet on them.  One problem is the cucumber beetles. I have quite a bit on them.  Today I noticed the leaves were very wilted on part of it.  I am really hoping its not bacterial wilt.  I checked the soil underneath and it was very dry so I watered the plant a lot this evening. I pray its just that the plant needed more water.