Its not officially summer yet, but it feels like summer for sure here in N. Texas. Its been in the lower 90s most of the past week, although we are forecast to get some relief for the next week, back into the mid 80s for a few days.
Tomatoes
My heirloom tomatoes that I grew from seed this spring are doing quite well. There are some real nice tomatoes on the vine, but none have ripened yet. The vines are really tall and are outgrowing their large tomato cages.
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| Tomatoes needing extra staking |
Like I mentioned before this seed packet was a mixture of heirloom tomato seeds so I am not sure what kind are which.
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This is the tomato I showed last time, its gotten even bigger now
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Pumpkins and Squash
The volunteer jack-o-lantern pumpkin plant has really grown a lot the past couple weeks. The vines are much thicker than the sugar pie pumpkins I am used to. I hand pollinated a female flower last week but unfortunately the plant aborted it. What a bummer that was! But since then, the plant has sent off some strong secondary runners, and those, plus the original vine, all have female flowers that I expect to open the next few mornings. I had to cover those three with some small sections of tulle netting, so as to discourage the blossom eating rats (that's my suspicion, more details below)
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| female blossom that may open in 2 days or so. |
Besides this volunteer, there are three other volunteer vines growing, all of which I am pretty sure are sugar pie pumpkins. Those vines are quite long now, but no pumpkins have set yet. Tons of male blossoms, but they have been aborting the female blossoms. I've been checking all these plants for SVB eggs (seen quite a bit) and also covering the vines with mulch and compost whenever possible. They have been growing among my corn. (along with a few volunteer tomato plants too)
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| Pumpkin vines growing among my corn (Jack-o-lantern in the back, sugar pie in the front) |
The other squash plants are the round zucchini, and the acorn squash. We've picked 3 nice big ball zucchini, and have a couple more on the way. Two nights ago, two blossoms that were about to open were eaten by rats. Very frustrating. I set up 5 rat traps yesterday evening, right by these round zucchini plants, and this morning I had caught two juvenile rats on a single trap. I wonder how many more I am dealing with. Rats have been such a headache for me the past two years. But its especially frustrating when they decide they like to eat my female squash blossoms. Have had the same problem with my acorn squash too. I've had to cover the blossoms, and hand pollinate.
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| Ball zucchini ready for picking. These plants are beautiful with large green and white spotted leaves |
I have the two ball zucchini plants I started earlier in the spring. The one show above, and another one, which is smaller and has yet to produce fruit (all have aborted). But I have three younger plants (all currently under tulle netting to protect from SVB). Those new plants are there to take over once these plants succumb to either SVB or just wear out.
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| acorn squash and ball zucchini |
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| typical size I've seen for this Table Queen variety |
The acorn squash plants have all growing quite a bit, and I've been taking care of them like the pumpkins, covering the vines with mulch whenever possible. I've also had to hand pollinate due to the rat eating the blossom problem. So far I've picked 4 of them, and three still on the vine are almost ready. This variety seems to be a small fruited one. The kind I had grown two years ago had much larger fruit. This is the Table Queen Acorn squash variety. I produces long vines, unlike the kind I tried before, which was semi-vining.
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| cluster of three, almost ripe. |
Beans
My pole beans continue to be a challenge/disappointment. So the vines have gotten pretty big now, and seem to have overcome some of the spider mite damage. But the frustrating thing is that despite the many flowers on the vines, almost all of the flower drop off. I have found very few tiny bean pods that have started growing. I'm concerned that the triple digit heat is only a few weeks ahead, and was hoping to get a good harvest of green beans.
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| Kentucky Wonder Pole beans along the fence. |
I've also noticed many of the growing tips of the vines have gotten eaten off. I am also suspecting rats are doing this, as they run along the fence rails. I've not been as concerned about this because the plants just keep growing more shoots. My main question/concern is why the beans pods are not forming.
Okra
Last year I had great success with Emerald Okra, so I had some seeds left, and I planted those few weeks ago. I planted them in a row, between the tomatoes and the beans. My thought is by the time these get big, the tomatoes will be dying back, and I can just pull them out to give more space to the okra. Okra loves the heat, so its one of the few things you can easily plant in the hottest part of the summer here in Texas.
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| Look closely and you can see the Okra seedlings, right next to the wood plank. I use the plank to help remind me where the seedling are so I don't step on them. |
Giving Watermelon and Corn another shot
I decided to give watermelon another chance. So I planted 3 more hills of them. The seedlings all have come out, and are growing. Hopefully they will get off to a better start, since my first attempt was a bust.
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| watermelon seedlings |
The other thing that has been kind of a bust so far has been the sweet corn. My original plants have all flowered, and have corn cobs forming, but they are tiny! (See pic above, in the pumpkin section). I have no idea what happened to those. They got off to a very slow start. Maybe the weather was too cool, or the soil on that part of the yard was unfavorable? So I started another section. They have all come up, and are looking pretty good.
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| new corn seedlings |
Oh, the cucumber plants are doing quite well. Lots of blooms, and I have seen some tiny cukes starting to form. They are also growing along the back fence, on a green wood trellis.
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cucumbers (center), next to beans, and some volunteer sunflowers).
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The strawberry plants are getting ready for their second crop. Many flower, and plants are starting to send out some runner.
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