Oct 1st Update

The first day of October was a very pretty sunny day, with temps in the low 80s.  September ended with some stubborn heat, where we actually hit 100 again in the 3rd week of September, but then the last week we got a nice cool front and some good rain too.  As has been the past few years, but big thing going on in the garden ( and literally BIG) are the pumpkins and winter squash.  In the past posts I had mentioned the sugar pie pumpkins, jack-o-lantern pumpkins, and the jumbo pink banana squash plants I had going.

The sugar pie pumpkins have run into and gone through the banana squash, and both type of plants are not growing across into the area where the round zucchini squash are, and overtaking the remnants of the cherry tomatoes (which are still producing some tomatoes, but the vines look pretty sickly), and overtaking the basil bushes too.  I'm concerned about my peppers too, but have managed to keep the vines from covering them so far.

Pink banana squash in the middle, with pole beans in the background.

huge area of sugar pie pumpkin vines

The production so far has actually been a bit disappointing. I only have 2 sugar pie pumpkins growing. One is almost full size and just starting to get some orange coloring.  The other set about a week ago, and grew right outside the fence.  I have the fence to keep out the dogs from getting in there and trampling stuff.

Unfortunately I had many promising looking female blossoms a few weeks ago but they all shriveled and died, even though I had pollinated them.  This morning I had a fresh new batch of female blossoms:

I pollinated three this morning, and probably a couple more tomorrow morning should be opening.

I think tomorrow I'll have my first banana squash female blossom open up. Here is what it looked like today:

banana squash blossom almost opened

The jack-o-lanterns still have not had any fruit set. I've had a couple good looking blossoms that I pollinated, but they died.  The vines are still growing though, and there still might be enough time for some, but most probably its too late for Halloween, but still out to be nice fall decorations if we get any.  

jack-o-lantern vines, with bottle gourd in the background, as well as purple morning glory vines.

Squash Vine Borers

To give a report on SVB activity... They are still around, but its not much of them.  Towards the 2nd half of September the egg laying slowed down quite a bit. Sometimes days will go by without any eggs found, but then more appear. The past few days I've picked a few off the sugar pies, but have found none on the jack-o-lanterns or banana squash, although I have not been looking very thoroughly, mainly because the vines are so thick I can hardly get in there without damaging anything.  I am still trying to dig in and cover the main vine tips whenever possible.  

The older sections of the sugar pie vines are starting to yellow, and I have found a few damaged vines, with SVB frass, but those have been mainly secondary vines which I did not cover.

I did find some extensive SVB damage on my round zucchini plants though.  I ended up extracting some large larva, pulling out some helplessly damaged portions of the plant, and covering up the existing parts of the plant after the surgery I had to do.  Some portions are still alive, and are producing a couple squashes.

Aphid Status

The aphids have pretty much been defeated by the lady bugs and other natural predators. I still see a few around but they are held in check by lots of ladybugs and larva that are around,so its not really a concern.

Other Vegetables

Since the aphid infestation has been brought under control, the okra are really doing well now.  These 4 plants are now about 7 ft tall and producing more than we need.  And I get to enjoy their beautiful blooms!

Okra blossoms

 The pole beans are doing very well.  I saw my first flower open this past few days.  I just hope my makeshift trellis doesn't break apart as the plants keep growing.

pole beans

 I also have some other fall plants that I intend to grow in pots until some space clears out in the main garden area.  Below I have some cabbage, red mustard, and even a few ornamental cabbages for my front flower bed.  I also have a couple pots of sweet pea plants.  I also have some spinach seedlings too, as well as lettuce. Maybe as some of the pumpkin vines die off I'll be able to find somewhere to plant these guys.

Early September

Its been fairly hot the past couple of weeks, but actually not as hot as it has been in past years in early September.  August ended wet and mild, and then its been mostly in the low to mid 90s since.  The past few days has seen highs around 96 or so, but this morning, we had a front come through, and it brought some rain, and then cooler temperatures, in the mid-80s today.  

Pests

Just like last year, the aphids started getting pretty bad towards the second half of the summer.  They started mostly around the okra and the bottle gourds (a.k.a birdhouse gourd), and got really bad on both.  I've taken the approach mostly of waiting until the predatory pest populations build up.  That's what happened last year, and eventually most of the aphids were gone when the ladybugs, lacewings, and hover fly (their larva) populations built up and brought them under control.   I have sprayed some soap solution in some severely infested areas, but that has barely had an effect.

Ladybug feasting on aphids

Bottle gourds seem to be very susceptible to aphid infestations 

The cucumber beetles surprisingly have not been bad this summer.  I do see a few here and there, but its much less than last year.  And no signs of squash bugs either.  The squash vine borers (SVB) are definitely around.  I have killed about 4 moths the past two weeks, on the weekend when I am around during the day.  Every day I pick off a handful of eggs from squash/pumpkin vines.   

Pumpkins/Squash

In my last update, I had talked about my pumpkins and squash that were growing,  Except for the Round Zucchini, I had them all under cover to protect them from SVB.  All these outgrow their covers, and are now out in the open.

The Jack-o-lanterns I uncovered about 4 days ago, and started covering exposed vines with dirt and mulch, to help protect them against SVB eggs getting laid on them, and to encourage more root formation.  The older part of the vine has been hit pretty had by the aphids, probably because the plants are right next to the bottle gourds.  Lots of male flowers, and a few females have shown up but have all died before they had a chance to grow bigger and open.  I think its probably the heat we have had.  Also the plants are still not as vigorous as are the sugar pie pumpkins,  which are growing like gangbusters!  

Jack-o-lantern pumpkin plants.

 This morning I uncovered the Jumbo Pink Banana Squash plants.  They are growing pretty fast now and have huge, beautiful leaves.  Like the pumpkins, I covered up the exposed vines with dirt and mulch.  It will definitely be interesting (and crazy!) when these start spreading over to the other side, and run into the round zucchini and jack-o-lanterns.  Its going to be a huge squash jungle in the garden.

Banana squash, with Sugar Pie Pumpkins in the background

The Sugar Pie pumpkin plants are HUGE.  They have taken over their whole area, and are moving into where the Banana squash are growing.  Its going to be very tough to get in there, and take care of the vines, help pollinate flowers, and check for SVB. There are some female flowers that have appeared but they have all shriveled, probably due to the heat. There are a couple that look like they might open in the next few days.

Sugar Pie Pumpkin plants

Wow its been a struggle with the Round Zucchini!  I think planting them in the heat of the summer was not a good idea.  I should have waited another month before planting them. The plants are all very long semi-bush vines.  I have not seen any signs of SVB damage, but I did do some pre-emptive injections with BT in the main vines.  The big problem has been the onslaught of aphids. They have cause the new leaves to be small and curled up.  They have attacked the blossom very badly.  I do see predatory insect populations building though.  And the other problem has been that almost all of the female flowers have either shriveled and died while still very small, or if they have gotten big enough, they have gotten eaten by rats, or have died shortly after I pollinated them.  I did get one to grow, and that one I have let to "ripen" so that I can use it for seeds, (because I am out of seeds for these) and use it for a decoration I guess.  It looks like a small yellow pumpkin.  So I am not sure whats going to happen with these.  I'm not sure if they will get to produce much before they succumb to SVB, and powdery mildew eventually.. or they might get overrun by the pumpkins and banana squash.

Okra in the back, and Round Zucchini in the front.

Okra, Beans, Peppers

The okra started blooming and producing despite the heavy aphid infestation.  I've picked about 10 pods now, and there are plenty of flowers coming up, although those are heavily covered by aphids, which I sprayed this morning with soapy water to see if that helps. (See picture above).

The Kentucky wonder pole beans are doing very well.  They are now training up on the old cucumber trellis, and I bet by next weekend I will have to grow the trellis more to accommodate their growth.   They are about 5.5 feet high now.

Pole beans

 The sweet bell peppers are doing well too.  The plants have not grown very tall, but they are producing flowers now, and I did see a small pepper forming now. That area is about to get overrun by the banana squash, so I am hoping they get a bit taller so they can stand out above the vines.

bell peppers (excuse the finger in the shot)

Late August Update

Almost the end of August here in North Texas.  After a typically hot mid August, the temps have been a lot more pleasant lately and we've had some rain, so everything is green.  

Okra

The okra plants are pretty big now, almost 5 feet tall.   I see flower heads starting to form now too.

The problem is that some of the plants have gotten hit pretty hard by aphids. There are thousand and thousands of aphids on some of the newer leaves and forming flower heads. I've started spraying with some soapy water to try and knock their population down a bit.  I am really hoping the beneficial bugs get established soon too.  Unfortunately I have not seen any ladybugs around.

Aphids attacking the okra

The aphid infestation happens almost every time I've grown okra.  They don't kill the plants but limit the prodiction, and slows them down.  Usually with some spraying of water, or some soapy water I can bring down their population.

Squash/Pumpkins

The round zucchini has been a disappointment so far.  The vines have been very dense with leaves,and they have toppled over, and many of the older leaves have gotten damaged, and have died.  So parts of the plants look ugly.  I've had to set out rat traps to kill the rats that have been eating my female flowers.  I've killed 4 so far!  Since my last update I have hand pollinated 2 flowers, but they both have shriveled and died.  Many others have withered while still small.  On top of all that, powdery mildew has tried to rear its ugly head, but I've beaten it back with some potassium bicarbonate that I've sprayed on it.
I've picked off a few squash vine borer eggs, but actually haven't seen that many.  The plant is so thick with leaf stalks that I don't think its feasible to find and pick all the eggs.  So my plan is to inject with BT at the first signs of frass, and hopefully I get some fruit to set before the SVBs start killing the plant.

round zucchini has grown very dense

round zucchini sprawling on ground.

My pumpkins are coming along pretty well.  I still have them all covered with netting so I don't have to worry about bugs, especially the borers (SVB).
Here are the jack-o-lanterns.  They are starting to vine out now, and growing pretty quickly.  The one tiny female flower has died, but some of the first male flower are about to open. Hopefully I can keep these covered for a few more weeks and then remove the covers, and start burying vines.

Jack-o-lanterns under netting

My Jumbo Pink Banana squash came up too.  All 4 seeds did, and I put the cover that was formerly on the jack-o-lanterns on these plants.

Jumbo Pink Banana Squash 

Here are my sugar pie pumpkins.  I didn't get around to thinning them out. I hate doing that, but I know I should.  So there are probably 7 or 8 plants there, with 4 seeming to be going very strong.  I still have them under cover, but have debated taking off the covers.  I just feel lazy and dont want to spend the effort checking them for eggs and covering the vines with dirt.  But they are about to overgrow the netting so I will have to soon.

sugar pie pumpkins.

I still don't see any flowers about to open on these.  They seem to be just focused on vining out.

Some other stuff growing

Here is my trellis/arbor from last year.  The volunteer birdhouse gourd, and the volunteer morning glories are doing very well and starting to grow up on it.

 Most of the gourd vines are actually on the ground.  They are growing very fast, and rooting along the ground too. I've picked some young immature gourds, because they are edible.  They actually taste very good, almost a nutty type taste. I made an Indian-style curry with them last week and it was very good! I think they are called "lauki" in India.  Google it, and you'll see many recipes and drinks and other stuff people make with these.

The calabash, bottle gourd, or white-flowered gourd.  This variety produces gourds that can be used for bird-houses and other decorations

Here are my sweet bell pepper plants.  They seem to be doing pretty well.  I see some flower heads forming.  Some are starting to lean over so I had to put a few small stakes to hold them up

sweet bell pepper plants

And here are my young Kentucky wonder pole beans.  They are looking good.  I have that fence to keep out small dog out, since I sprinkled some slug/snail bait close to them.  Slugs really like the seedlings. These are growing by the trellis I had made for the cucumbers earlier this year.

Mid-August Update

We just went through a few weeks of typical early August weather here in N. Texas, were we were at around 100 most days, and last Thursday we hit 104. But this past Saturday the weather started changing, and since then its been a lot cooler and more pleasant.  Since then we've been in the lower 80s, and its been lightly raining on and off, and surprisingly, the forecast calls for mid-80 for the next 10 days!  That's pretty rare here in August.  So I am expecting things in the garden to really start doing a lot better and producing more.  

Last post, I mentioned my Round Zucchini plants that I had under some netting. They have been growing huge under the netting, almost completely filling the area, and sprawling like vines.  There have been lots of male and female flowers but they have all withered and died before any have opened.  I think that was because of the heat.  I decided to remove the covering because the plants have gotten so big.  I hope that after a number of week of there being no place to lay eggs available that the SVB moths have left the area, but I know its still too early to think they are done for the year.  But I think the plants are so large and well established now that they should be able to survive some infestation for a while now, and hopefully produce well.  I am really hoping some of the flowers open and set fruit this coming week with the better weather.  There are 4 plants. They are sprawling and I can see many roots forming along the main vine and rooting down into the ground.   As I mentioned before, I am hoping to let at least 1 of the fruits grow to complete maturity, in order to use it as a fall decoration and ultimately for collecting seeds. These are the last of the seeds I had for this variety, and heirloom variety, so I would like to replenish my seed supply.

In the picture below you see them, with the okra plants behind them.  The okra are really doing well too. No flowers have bloomed yet, but the stems are getting real thick, and I think they will start producing soon too.  I have thinned them down to 4 strong plants.

Round zucchini plants, with Emerald Okra in the background

Pumpkins

Last post I mentioned some Jack-o-lantern pumpkin seedlings.  Here they are today.. so they are about 1 month old now. They have been kind-of struggling, but I am not sure why.  Maybe the heat.  Some of the lower leaves have mysteriously shriveled and died, and the plants looks wilted in the heat at times.  I suspect I might have over-watered them trying to compensate for the heat.  But today they are looking pretty good.  I see male flowers forming in them, and they seem to be starting to vine out. I'll keep them under these covers until they outgrow it.

Jack-o-lantern pumpkins after a month old

I was reading about commercial pumpkin varieties, and there is a good chance these might be seeds from hybrid varieties... so I might not get what I expect.  Will be interesting to see what this produces.  There are actually 6 plants there, but I'll need to thin them out to 4. (two are pretty small actually).

I also mentioned the Sugar Pie Pumpkins I was planted.  Those came up and have grown very well, and very quickly!  They are vining now, and just look a lot better than the ones above.  Here is what they look like, about 3.5 weeks old!

sugar pie pumpkin

There are about 10 plants there, and I should really thin them down to about 5 or so.  I hate doing that though when the plants all look healthy.
I'll plan on keeping the pumpkins covered as long as practical, especially if I see my Round Zucchini getting hit by SVB.  

I got some Pink Jumbo Banana Squash seeds from someone at GardenWeb forums, and she sent me a few seeds.  I soaked 4 seeds and they just sprouted, so I planted them in this area.  I know I will be cutting it real close because they are getting a pretty late start, especially for C. Maxima varieties, that take about 100-110 days to maturity.  Hopefully we don't have a freeze until very late November this year.

Jumbo Pink Banana Squash planted here.

Tomatoes and Peppers

My tomato plants are still alive for the most part.  They are still huge and sprawling. and look rather crispy from the heat, but still growing.  Below are both Rutgers tomato plants, and Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.  Really hope the mild weather gets these producing again, otherwise they are a huge waste of space.  

Most of these are the Super Sweet 100 cherry tomato plants

some Rutgers tomato plants from the spring that survived the summer

For these Rutgers shown above,  I had bent over and dug most of the long vines into the ground, so many of the tomatoes should have some good root systems in place. I have not done a good job weeding the area, so they are getting overgrown by grass.

The sweet bell peppers are still coming along.  Its been pretty slow going, but the plants look pretty good today.  There are 5 good plants,and a tiny one that almost died but is showing signs of trying to come back.
I think my timing was good on planting these. These should starting producing a lot around late September when the weather cools down.

sweet bell pepper mixture

Beans

I pulled up all the remaining cucumber vines, and this area has been clean for about three weeks now. So I decided it was  good area to try and plant a fall planting of pole beans.  So I just planted some Kentucky Wonder beans there, and a number have just started coming up. The wire netting is to discourage varmints from eating the new seedlings.  Fall is usually a great time for pole beans here, the trick is timing it so they produce well during the cool months of Oct and early November before the freeze.  Some years I have waited too long to plant, and have had so see beautiful plants killed by the freeze just as they were starting to produce.

Mid Summer Update

Its almost the end of July, the hottest part of the summer.  Here is an update of what's going on in the garden.


Last year I had one of my dry birdhouse gourds break open at the end of the season, and some of the seeds scatted in the area.  This spring they sprouted, and since we've had a pretty wet spring and summer, they have grown well without any care.  I did start watering it a little a few weeks ago.  Here it is today, growing very nicely. 

Speaking of the gourds, the ones from last year are mostly completely dry now. I cut a hole into a couple yesterday, and will try to start using some of them for crafts. 


A few days ago we planted some jack-o-lantern pumpkins (saved seeds from a store-bought one someone gave me). Here is what they look like today, under their protective tulle tent.   Hopefully these will have good pumpkins by Halloween.  These don't stand a chance if it wasn't for the netting, unless I spent lots of time checking for SVB eggs, which is not fun.

jack-o-lantern pumpkin seedlings about a seek since seeds were soaked

Today I also just planted some sugar pie pumpkins in this other area of the yard. I pulled out a huge sunflower plant to make space.  There are some of the tomato plants that are still alive...  the pumpkin vines will grow around them if they still alive later this summer. 

just planted sugar pie pumpkins here

Below are the  sweet peppers that I mentioned starting from seeds in the last post.  About 7 seedlings came up, and I put them in the ground. One is dying, so there are 6 plants that are looking like they might make it.   They are pretty slow growing... as I remember from past experience, peppers start off slow. 

sweet peppers a few weeks old

 Here are the cucumbers.  They have been hit by SVB, as I have found some of the vines wilting, and have found grubs in them. But the main trunk doesn't seem to have been hit, so many portions of the vines are still alive and producing still.  Cucumber beetles have been bad, but have not caused a big problem yet.  Next to it are some of my basil bushes. These are regular volunteers in my garden. 

the cucumber are hanging on for life

And here is my tomato jungle.  The "sweet 100" cherry tomatoes have produced well lately, but seem to be taking a breather with the recent very hot weather. The Rutgers vines are also still alive, but have not produced anything in about a month. Its just been way too hot for them. The vines I had buried have certainly been helped, as I have seen fresh new growth, but no flowers or fruit though.

 From the previous post, I had mentioned I was planting some round zucchini, and that 1 seedling had come up.  Well that was the only one that came up.  I suspect my seeds are getting old. So I sprouted and planted 3 more seeds, which did come up (out of about 8 soaked seeds). So these plants are about 2 weeks behind the first one.  One of my goals with these plants is to let one squash grow to maturity so I can get seeds to replenish my supply. When these mature they are like small yellow pumpkins.

Round zucchini under protective netting

To report on my experiment using aluminium foil, I can say it didn't really "foil" the SVBs.  I've had lots and lots of the moths flying around trying to lay eggs, (the second generation this year that came from my spaghetti squash)  and I did find a few eggs on the leaves, despite the foil. So I think it did help a little bit, but not enough to prevent infestation.  I did pick off those eggs I found, and then covered the plant with tulle netting.  When the plant got bigger, and the newer seedling started outgrowing their smaller individual tulle nettings, I erected my bigger netting set-up shown above.  Flower are starting to appear on the big plant, but haven't opened yet.  I did see two female flowers forming. Hopefully we get a dip in the heat when those are open, and the fruit sets.  This week should be in the mid to upper 90s.



In my last previous post from July 3rd, I had shown my okra seedlings.  They have grown quite a bit since then, and are close to 2 feet tall now.    I thinned them down to 4 good plants (about 7 had come up).

Summer in North Texas

Summer is here, and in Texas, it mean extreme heat and dryness, which make it very hard to maintain a garden. Its been in the mid-to-upper 90s most days, and haven't had any good amount of rain in about 2 weeks (while we were on vacation).

Pretty much all the stuff I planted in the Spring is done with.  The onions, squash, garlic are all picked. The rutgers tomatoes are done producing too.  But the cherry tomatoes, being much more heat resistant, are still producing. The plants have gotten huge, and very long, so I have started burying many of the tomato vines so encourage more rooting, so that they might produce more later on.

cherry tomatoes can take the heat better

These cherry tomatoes have been great.  The ones that escape the mockingbirds, I often pick and eat them as a snack, as they have a very good flavor.  The rutgers tomatoes are all done producing, Unfortunately the mockingbirds ate a lot of them, in spite of that we  still got a pretty decent amount of tomatoes from the plants.
 I have layed down their long vines and dug trenches, and dug in the vines to encourage more root production.  Hopefully if the plants stay alive they produce more in the fall. ( may be foolish thing to do considering the water I'll have to spend to water them) but we'll see what happens.

buried tomato vines under a sunflower (being propped up by a stick)

 In late spring my son Andrew wanted to plant something so I helped him plant some cucumbers.  It was kinda late in the season but I thought was worth a try.  He seeded them in a large pot, and later he transplanted the plants once this space was available( where the snap peas has been growing).  His plants have grown pretty big now, and are producing. These are the "straight eight" variety. We have picked 3 nice ones, and a few more are growing. There are lots of cucumber beetles on them, and a few squash bugs too, but I have not wanted to spray anything on them.  Hopefully we can keep getting some more until they succumb to the heat and bugs.

cucumbers with some basil nearby.

 There are many volunteer basil plants and some milo plants around which I water occasionally.  I very much welcome the basil.  They have been coming up every year, and I just let them grow where-ever they pop up.

New Plantings

One of the reliable hot-summer plants is okra.  I seeded a few plants a couple weeks ago, and they came up.

Emerald okra from seeds saved from last year

I have the chicken wire over them for protection since we have a small dog that sometimes goes into the garden has tried to make holes.  This is to give them a little protection until they get a bit bigger.  I have 7 seedlings, but once bigger may thin down to 4 since that should provide more than enough for our needs.


 I also planted 4 "Round Zucchini" seeds last week, and 1 has come up.  Not sure what to expect since it will be growing maturing during both the hottest part of the summer where the pest are in full force too.  But my plan for these is to:
- While small, monitor every few days for SVB eggs, and keep area clear to prevent squash bugs.
- Put some aluminum foil around base and as mulch to see of this keeps SVB from laying eggs, (I've read about this but have not tried it.
- Once plants are bigger (maybe 2 weeks from now)  do a good inspection for eggs, then cover all the plants will tulle netting.  (not doing it now since I want them to get full sun so they grow fast and strong in their early life)
- Once female flowers appear, then hand pollinate, as long as aphids don't start being a problem and force me to remove the covers to deal with them.  Eventually just remove the covers.


The other thing I am hoping to grow during the summer is peppers.  Last week I bought a packet of sweet peppers:

I just planted 10 seeds in small pots a couple days ago.  Hoping they come up soon.  I thought about just direct seeding them, but thought it would be easier to keep the soil moist by planting them in pots, and putting them in the shade, until they germinated.