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.