MOVING INTO OUR SUMMER VEGGIE GARDENS, PART 1

Our volunteer tomatoes gave us their first fruits yesterday. They tasted real good in last night's hamburgers!

We can grow bell peppers in the fall in Houston? I thought they liked the hot weather.

Peppers will turn into trees in milder climates and not die every winter. Most garden veggies that have reblooms can survive til frosts, a few have a terminal ending/renewal cycle, like soybeans that are also sensitive to length of day light requirements. Depends on the type of Fall Houston has more than anything else..

I always get my best peppers in the fall. We grew a jalapeno plant for 3 growing seasons once. It was in a container and it produced all winter in our sun room.

Linda-regarding your bell pepper. You might want to try posting that pic on the pepper forum. I didn't think much of it until I saw the pic. Something isn't right. Lol

Great haul Steaphanie. That's one reason I like pole beans better, they produce longer then bush beans. I still need to sow my yard long beans. I have 20 or so pepper plants that I overwintered from last year. Some were in the 4" nursery pots but they still produced pods. They are definately a perennial, that can be grown year round if they are protected from the cold.

I think I have figured out why my tomatoes set, even when it's hot. In this area we usually get below 70* at nite. Lately we've been getting below 55* which might be too cool. But I just checked and there are more tomato buttons on most, if not all of my plants. So even tho it gets hot during the day, it cools down during the night.

Banana peppers stuffed with black beans cooked with sumac and garlic and wild rice with a smidgen of pepper jack cheese and hot sauce? To die for. Way better than I hoped, flat out cold with the peppers crunchy and the stuffing with a bit of toothiness.

I may not be giving away as many banana peppers as usual this year... although getting the seeds and such out of banana peppers with just a slit in the side was a challenge. I ate the mistakes. :)

That sounds REALLY good. I can think of other peppers that would work with too.

The folks at work have started asking for handouts from the garden. LOL

I sent the men that are working on the water leak in my house home with squash today. The squash were supposed to be picked, the week I was gone, but weren't. Needless to say the zukes were like baseball bats, but they seemed happy with them. I've picked 4 tomatoes so far but today I picked my first one that I actually know what it is, it's a Phoenix weighing in at 13oz. Also picked a Heatmaster that is much smaller.
The plants are just loaded, and my harvest is exactly a month later then normal but the yields look to be higher, much higher.

Only thing I am seeing on the leaves may have to do with something sucking juices from the leaves-like aphids... What have you discovered GymGirl?

I saw my first stink bug of the season today , just before it started raining ..
That 's about as exciting as stepping on snails or sitting on a snake ,,isn't it ? lol
Good thing was I got four little yellow tomatoes , set them on the counter , came back to take a pic ,, and gone , they got ate , poof !

I went out and picked three tiny ripe currant tomatoes - our first of the season - this morning, to go with the cottage cheese and smoked whitefish and bagel we were having for breakfast. Yum!

Yay Lisa!! Any harvest in July is good.

I miss the crab and lobster from the seashore areas you all might live close to (closer than me anyway)
I still miss those , only after decades of learning about pollution ,, somehow it ain't the same anymore (sigh)
Thank heavens for a garden .....

Stephanie, I grow such a wide variety of veggies that I'm usually harvesting something. Lol
But given the strange weather this spring I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't expect a bumper crop of everything. Never expected all this squash, and last week the night time temps were so cool that it really helped to allow more tomatoes etc to set. This is what I used to remember gardening was like. Lol

I got 2.5 lbs of tomatoes this evening. I still need to get more planted/sown but it's just too hot during the day. A lot of these will go in containers to extend the season and keep them out of the blazing sun.My helpers moved some of my seedlings, while I was gone. They didn't realize I only had tags in one plant and everything to the right of that was the same thing. That system will no longer work. Lol. Everything with a tag will go in a container and the tag less ones will go in ground. When they set fruit then I will know what they are. I had it sooo organized this year. Oh well.

I think I have finally solved the mystery as to why I get tomatoes and such all summer long.. We usually drop to 70 or below at night, with very few exceptions. Last week we got below 55, very unusual.

Here's the little yellow currant tomatoes we have been munching on . this was one of the first .. more since . more to follow '

Ok, Ya'll, I just (and I mean within the last 5 minutes) got my first FRUIT TREE!!

It's an "Improved Meyer" Lemon tree from Walmart, on sale for 50% or, $8.50.

Now. How big will it get, and what do I do next, LOL???

It already has about 5 small lemons on the branches. It has a good stem, and is about 6' tall.

________________

Ok. So, I just read up in the Plant Files, and it looks like this tree will stay manageably small enough for me. I can also grow it in a large container (which would be my preference), and move it inside and out to protect it.

One comment said I should remove the fruit from the less-than-one-year-old tree, to force energy to the tree instead of the fruit. Should I cut them off, now?

I'm getting excited!!!



This message was edited Jul 9, 2013 1:43 PM

Thanks, Nola_Nigella!

Could you post a picture of your Meyer in a container? How old is your tree?

And, what kinda bugs/fungus do you have to battle against?

Linda

Don't know if this is the proper forum, but it certainly applies here. Can you imagine not being able to buy or trade seeds for your garden. Isn't that just a bit too much government.
http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/05/06/banned-european-union-to-outlaw-heirloom-seeds/

This message was edited Jul 9, 2013 6:57 PM

We see a lot of leaf miner in citrus here in South Georgia.

Seedfork, there's a thread discussing this topic here

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1311316/

but unfortunately it's been taken over by people discussing the changes in DG's formatting.

Thanks greenhouse_gal

Seedfork, thank YOU for bringing that topic back to its original purpose!

Bad post, sorry.

This message was edited Jul 10, 2013 4:44 PM

Bad post on my part.


This message was edited Jul 10, 2013 4:44 PM

Well, my summer garden is slowing down, thanks to the heat. It's that time of the summer to baby my tomato plants, spray the okra for aphids, and to plan for my fall/winter garden.

Let them be Lynda, they dont turn til Oct or Nov and you wont want to repot til Jan anyway. Thorns. Citrus needs way different handling than veggies, but hungry hippo is a good beginning. Fertilizer spikes DO NOT work. Once you get it in a permanent location they are a lot less problem. It can bush out, always thought espalier would be a good thing to do with this citrus. it should be the new improved Meyer Lemon not the older version as well?

Hey greenhouse_gal We are only part time thread hijackers...lol
Storm here played some havoc with my plants . power was out all day yesterday .
Knocked over a bean trellis , broke two of my tomato plants , not the ones that are doing real well though .
Still waiting for my first red garden tomato ..

I've been getting some currant tomatoes but so far nothing else. Cukes are coming but not there yet, and peas, favas, and lettuce is over. I see some pepper buds...

I keep thinking that some of the storms we've been having will damage plants or supports but so far we've been lucky!

Juhur, I was following the European rule thread with interest because I've heard several different takes on it. I wish our European subscribers would weigh in.

Thanks, Kitt!

So, leave the little lemons alone, feed the plant regularly, and repot it in January, correct? It came in a 3.5 gallon tall little pot. Will it be comfortable there until January?

I have a 15? 25? gallon cattle molasses tub that I can use as a container. It's black plastic.

Or, if push comes to shove, there are two possible places I could plant it into the ground, either the inside or outside corner of my fence, on the south of the yard. Gets full sun on either side of the fence most of the day...

LMK...

greenhouse_gal , Europeans have a different view of those of us here, arguing or copying them and their arguments ..
I wish they would of kept that one there ..personally .. Only ; wish in one hand ... Well you know ... I might as well....

I'm European - what do you want to know?

I tore out some diseased tomato plants today and whacked some diseased branches and limbs off of another. I also harvested some tips to root from some healthy plants in order to plant for the fall. We saved all the green tomatoes on those to see if they would ripen. Also harvested some tomatoes that have sun scald. I cut off a bunch of aphid infested limbs on my fennel and discovered a bunch of green lacewing eggs! Yay for me! Sprayed the okra for aphids/ants with some soap water. Shooting with plain water just never works for me. I still have a lot of baby Royal Burgundy beans on my plants, so I might decide to save them and not yank them just yet. Almost all of the pepper seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago have sprouted, so I'm moving from summer to fall gardening. LOL This dragonfly was enjoying my compost pile, too. Love to see all the various flying critters in my yard. (Except for the wasps!)

It will be fine where it is til Jan Lynda, it can get to be a real tree and not a small one either. Just so you know...They are susceptible to freezes, but I dont remember the temps requirement. Sun hogs to prevent the leaves from getting a fungus that washes with a concoction of soapy water and something. Ok. I need my notes and dont have internet and the brain just came up with about 5 cures, so am backing out of this a moment...

I'm harvesting/eating: corn, zucchini, cucumbers, banana peppers and as of today, tomatoes.

The first run of corn is about played out and I was lazy so I didn't freeze or can any. I guess I am leaving it out there to dry and make corn meal with. I had more corn than I imagined possible. Still, I'm not sure corn is worth it.

It looks like a bumper year for butternut squash despise the fact we really haven't had the heat they like, but it's still early in the season.

I'm starting to prep for fall now; it's nearly time to plant cabbage, broccoli and carrots already.

D mail Gymgirl

Hey Bee you and greenhouse_gal disappeared to another thread did you? and ; Yes I am hijacking in thread stray again ,,, oops ..
Bean trellis ,one them went down in yesterdays storm .. beans from the ground it is .. !

Juhur, I'm still here! I posted something early this morning! Just picked a nice handful of currant tomatoes for salad tonight.

I only asked as HoneybeeNC asked what you might of been wondering as HoneybeeNC is European ..

Me too!!! picking little yellow currant Tomatoes and that is about all .yummy !!!
Everything else is looking good except it is laying on the ground ..