Maters and eggplants growing in straw bales. Southern peas, okra, green beans, and peppers growing in dirt. The southern peas are in need of a good dose of Epsom Salt which they received yesterday.
I wanted to get pics before everything turns brown. We've had 9 straight days of triple digit temps with the next 10 days forcasted the same.
Jerry
Squash, pole butter beans, cantaloupe, cukes, and maters growing in containers.
Jerry
Eggplants growing in straw bales.
Maters in 5 gal grow bags. Next year I plan to have a PVC hoop frame built over this system to support 70/30 aluminum shade screen.
Another one of the maters. Notice how they are growing up over the top of the cattle panels.
You have some great looking stuff going on. I hope you catch a break with the heat. I grow in containers and everything but the peppers and zukes has burned up with just mid to high 90s. I know they'd croak with your temps.
taynors, to see the different varieties of tomatoes I planted this year check out this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/998358/
Your potatoes should do fine in straw. I've read good things about growing potatoes in straw.
twiggybuds, Yeah, growing in containers is challenging. To be successful one has to really be in tune with a plants needs. That's to say one has to speak veggie and I'm still learning.
From now on I am going to try to grow more veggies in straw bales as long as they are available in my part of the Country. To me it is by far the easiest and most productive way to garden in an area where gardening in dirt is not an option. My area is limestone and caliche and is almost impossible to control PH to a level that veggies will tolerate.
Jerry
That is fabulous they are so nice. I have been trying to get my sons to use our cattle
fencing but they say no. Whats a mother to do?
Has any one heard of turkey in the straw? It seems like one time I heard about growing turkey in the straw.
Does he have an album coming out/?
I am about 70 miles west of you Jerry and can attest to the temps. My outside thermometer exploded about 3 days ago.:-)
Just about everything I have in nursery pots from one gallon to 5 gallons have been moved to where they get mostly dappled shade as you can see in this photo. The stuff along the northwest fence breathes a sigh of relief every day when the fence shades them. Large leafy plants like pineapple sage, sunflowers, and rudebeka can stand watering about 3 times a day. Basil in one gallon pots are the same way. The amount of water needed is directly proportinate to the amount of leaf area exposed.
The stackers are all coming through in good shape because I can just keep squirting water to them as needed by setting a mechanically adjusted timer for the amount of time I think they need. They are in much better shape than stuff growing in individual nursery containers. The top pots in the stackers dry out much faster than the lower one's so recently I have just set that mechanical timer for just a few minutes....just enough to get some extra water to the top two pots. How are your stackers doing?
If you are planning on doing more haybale gardening next year, you might profit by drawing up diagrams of where the sunshine is falling in your yard at this time of year. Lots of stuff can profit at this time of year by dappled sunshine rather than direct sunshine and now is a good time to decide where to set up the haybales. I have trimmed out some of the limbs of my scrub oaks and cedars so they throw a dappled shade rather than a solid shade. I only have a 60x60 foot area fenced in from the deer to grow in. My neighbor and the man who built the fence suggested I cut down some of my trees so I would have more sunshine for gardening. Yeah, right!!! Right now, I have more sunshine than I know what to do with. I noticed from some previous photo's you posted that you have about the same type of trees in your garden area as I do.
Hey Jerry........this stacker is sitting off to the side and is not plumbed to the same watering system as the rest of my stackers so I have to hand water it. I just took this picture and these pots still read 'moist' on a moisture meter but look how wilted some of these plants are!! That is something new I am trying called "chinese leaves", supposed to be good in salads or for stir frys, and is supposed to withstand summer temps. Them chinese must have not heard about Texas sunshine. :-) The two little plants in the top pot are mini-bell peppers grown from seed. They dont mind this hot weather. I dont know if those chinese leaves are going to survive or not but that stack is movable so I am moving it to some dappled shade area. I also water the pole to see what the chinese leaves will do.
Well lookee here! 30 minutes later and the chinese leaves have perked right up after watering. They looked so pitiful a few minutes ago that I never thought they would recover. Evidently they like it 'wet' rather than 'moist'. Or maybe I need a new moisture meter.
"How are your stackers doing?"
Jay, I'm just getting back to reading this thread. I planted one stack, but the other one is not up yet. Stackers have been a new learning experience for me, but I am getting there. I lost a couple plants and the others struggled to get this far, but are showing signs of wanting to grow. I rotate the stacker, feed and water and am about to get that part down to what the plants like. Of course I have lots of different plants planted in it which adds to "plant needs" mix.
What I've learned to do for my style of gardening in stackers is to plant like kind plants in regards to soil, food and water requirements and stay away from transplanting peat pellets into the stacker cells. My direct seeded marigolds seem to be liking the heck out of the stacker.
Stay cool!
Jerry
I tell my clients direct sunlight doesn't mean direct TX sunlight. Although, my garden seems to be with standing this temps. surprisingly well. I just don't like it because there are so few hours where I can go out in the garden and work, its just too hot. I found the peacock standing in the dogs' water on the back porch today, so it must be hot.
Lisa
LOL Lisa! That's too funny about the peacock!
I often tell people that full sun in TX isn't the same as full sun everywhere else. Our garden is actually doing fairly well (I'm surprised) ,but part of it has some shade until mid-morning and some part has shade from about 4pm on.
Jerry,
I loved seeing pictures of your garden. Everything looks like it's doing great. I'm sure some type of shade cloth next year will help with protection from those extreme temperatures.
We don't have that problem here in mid Michigan. We've only had a few days where we got anywhere near 90. Today it's in the 60's. All the cold crops love it like the broccoli, cabbage and swiss chard ect. but the 'maters and peppers would like a little more heat. Not much we can do to control the temperatures. At least we're getting plentiful rains.
I went to pull out the pea vines the other day, and they were sprouting with new flowers. With the cool weather back, I may get another crop of peas!
TRock,
I'm curious. How many tomato growbags are standing there between those cattle panels? I was concerned that my 5-gallon growbags (and I only have SIX) were too close together, but looking at yours, geez, you got em' butted up next to each other.
Obviously they aren't suffering any for being so close together.
Please comment. Thanks!
Linda
Linda, The cattle panels are 16 feet long. There are 16 5 gal grow bags under the cattle panels and one on the outside on the other end. In comparing the plants growing in the grow bags to the ones I have growing in straw bales, the ones in the bags are definitely growing more spindly, if that is a good word. Next year I will use 10 gal grow bags under the cattle panels which will allow more space between the plants.
Since that picture was taken on June 21 st we have had 31 days in triple digits. The maters are showing all the signs of heat stress. Notice the mulch! It really has helped in this heat. I'm sure tomato roots have grown from the bags into the mulch. We get free mulch at our County recycle yard. I get it by the P/U load.
Here is a picture I just took from the same angle as the picture taken back in June. Notice the darker green areas under the bits of shade in the front of the picture. On the left is a garbage can resting on top between the panels. It is turned up to hold water for the birds. On the right I placed several boards over the top of the panels for shade as an experiment to see how the plants would reacted. Next year the plan is to install a hoop cover over the panels to support 70/30 aluminum shade screen. It is my understanding that plants need 70% light to do well under shade screen. It is my hope that the aluminum will conduct more heat than a fabric would and therefore provide some coolness the plants will really like in this Texas heat.
What I've learned with the 5 gal grow bags is that the more confined the root system is the trickier it is to maintain the proper level of food and moisture to sustain the continuous growth necessary for healthy plants and top production.
God willing and the creek don't rise, we should be getting some cooler weather within four to six to eight weeks. I was thinking this morning, while noticing that there were a few good suckers on a couple of plants I like, that I would root them for Fall. The little suckas will root in a couple days in wet coir and should be good to go in four to six weeks. Some of the suckers have blooms that will need to be snipped until after they have rooted up good.
Jerry
today's maters 16 lbs 11oz - Total y-t-d 205 lbs 1 oz.
Black Zebra growing in straw bale. This plant growing in straw bale has been a real winner for me this year. Once the bale started to break down and collapse more attention had to be paid to maintaining enough moisture to keep the plant moving forward at a healthy clip.
Southern Peas, Okra, Beans, and Peppers doing their thing.
So Jerry,
I take it you don't stress out about all that brown growth at the bottom of your stems, right? I'm beginning to realize that when tomatoes are growing, they look a raggedy mess, overall. I keep trying to get a perfect tomato vine growing throughout the season, with nice green leaves from the top tip to the very bottom.
But, I'm about to amend my thinking, based on what I'm seeing and hearing from you expert growers. It seems as long as they're not toooooooooo diseased in any way or just seriously overridden with pests, just go with the raggedy flow and harvest the 'maters it cranks out from the top of the vines, right?
Today's okra harvest 2 lbs 14 oz. I picked about this much last Friday. Okra production is smokin'.
This okra is Emerald Velvet purchased from Grady Distributing out of Fresno, Ca. It is one of the best okras I have ever grown. It is so tender that even the long pods slice green like cutting stick butter with a hot knife. I used to grow Clemson Spineless, but no more. The Clemson variety gets too tough to cut at about 5 or 6 inches whereas this Emerald Velvet I am growing this year is tender up to 9 1/2 to 10 1/2 inched long.
Linda, about the no leaves or brown leaves at the bottom, well a root system will support only so much green and that is going to be the new growth sort of like a tree. As long as the plants are blooming, setting tomatoes and producing I am good with that. No to be a smart aleck, but hey, we don't eat the leaves..right?
TRock,
You make a good case for not sweating no/brown leaves! Thanks!
I love that explanation, Jerry! I always figure that the plant is using all its energy to continuing to bloom, setting and growing fruit, and putting out new growth to mess with the "lowly" leaves at the bottom.
