So yeah, ever since saying, "fuck it, I'm going heavy on the fertilizer", I've applied almost double the recommended amount, twice as often... and the results have been amazing. Things are no longer predominately yellow, and I haven't seen any signs of over-fertilization. The herb garden is looking great, and smelling even better: The peppers are still a bit yellowish, but are becoming more and more healthy every day. My cherry tomatoes went from being a bit anemic to being fucking loaded. 95% of them are green and new right now, but we've had 2 ripen enough to eat and they were amazing. I expect that within the next week I'll have hundreds of the fuckers ready to eat. I'm just amazed at the density of them:
One thing I have learned after some online investigation is that water soluble fertilizer works much better than almost all "shake fertilizer", as that stuff is usually a time-release thing that is meant to work over a few weeks or months, not immediately. I've been hitting the tomatoes with a vegetable-specific water soluble formula and it's been doing wonders.
Thanks Kubla Kahn for the Thuricide recommendation. I have not had a problem with Hornworms since I applied it. Finally getting some decent color in cherry tomatoes and already picked a few. Still waiting on the heirlooms though. They are taking forever.
Turns out fertilizer was my problem, too. I'm so mad it took me this long to figure it out. I have amped it up and already have some small bell peppers growing. I have applied the granulated stuff twice in a month and put out a 50lb bag of manure too. I will be trying out some liquid fertilizer since I some on hand anyway, as the tomatoes are getting blighty higher up. The weather is starting to cool slightly so I suspect a lot of tomatoes will be setting in the evenings.
Great! Don't be shy about thumping the blooms, or beating on the cage a little with a stake or a broom. Helps that sticky pollen to get where it needs to go.
Here, grabbed this for you Bewildered. Guy is a little goofy, and the first minute is not great, but the rest of it explains it very well. Take a peek.
Yeah Ive read about people using electric toothbrushes, and even tuning forks that vibrate even better for the buds. I might try this next year as Ive just left them alone and I could probably get some better results.
I shook it good, real good. I had to attach a rope to counterbalance the tomato tree. Bleh, I wish I had a rope that was almost any color than blue. PVC pipe would be so much better for the corners... Spoiler
Just went out and checked the cucumbers, and it seems like overnight I went from a few small gherkins to 5 cukes that were huge. Needless to say, just had the first real "from my own garden" type food just now... fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, fantastic spicy basil, along with some bocconcini and proschuto, all drizzled with olive oil and killer balsamic vinegar. I'm now belching basil, and it is awesome. Just mixed up some lemonade and bulleit and it's on its way to being a hell of a Friday night. Oh... and I just landed a contract to build an app for a robot. I'm giggling like a little school girl.
This is what all the toil is for. A glass of ripe green tomato bloody mary. This is all todays haul. Not too shabby. Spoiler Also, cucumbers are like zuccihininihis, you have to watch them every 12 hours or you wind up with somthing out of chernobyl. I have like 50 lbs ready to go into a fermenter bucket I made.
Had a ton of cucumbers this weekend so made up a smashed cucumber salad for dinner last night... it came out great... here's the recipe I used (Go Chef John!) In the meantime, I can't get over how much the garden has matured. Spoiler: pics Tomatoes and cucumbers before... all yellow and anemic and looking like they were going to die off. And after a ton of fertilizer and automated watering every day, they are about 8' tall: What you can't see is the insane density of tomatoes... the entire plant is just full of green fruit that is about to hit big any day now. Already picked a handful of ripe ones, but tons more are right around the corner. And the herb garden is going awesome... being used a ton. I'm currently working on a way to move it indoors and set up some grow LED strips and watering, etc, so I can use it year round. Before, when it started: And now. Had to fight off some Japanese beetles, but otherwise there's nothing really that's gone wrong with them... knock on wood. Already working on some plans for a couple of big raised beds for the back yard next year. If anyone has any good resources for garden planning that they could point me to, I'd appreciate it... things like potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, garlic, leeks, etc.
Finally something other than a cherry tomato: The picture doesn't show just how many Ghost peppers there are on this plant, it is fucking loaded:
I bought my fall crops and next spring's tomato and melon seeds from the Burpee website last week and they come in today. I am so flipping excited. Since our fall is so warm I am not sure how much success I will have but I am looking forward to trying: Spoiler TOMATO CHEROKEE PURPLE 1.00 60707A TOMATO SAN MARZANO ORGANIC 1.00 52068A TOMATO RED MORTGAGE LIFTER 1.00 53095A BROCCOLI DE CICCIO HEIRLOOM 1.00 64015A LETTUCE HEATWAVE BLEND 1.00 53255A ONION RED CREOLE HEIRLOOM 1.00 52597A PEA SNOWBIRD 1.00 62205A MELON HONEYDEW HYBRID That variety of broccoli is supposed to be good for freezing, and I think you can store onions for a year. Even with coupon codes seeds from their site are a little pricey, but since they supply enough seeds for a couple-3 seasons, the cost breakdown it's too bad. My composting project outside is coming along faster than I anticipated. I have a good 50lbs of compost at this point and will need to use it in a few weeks to make room for the next batch. I might need another container to hold the amount I need for the square footage in the garden. If you're creative you can compost so much...burned oven mitts, toilet paper rolls, dryer lint, all food scraps and forgotten leftovers (excluding meat), dog fur. It adds up fast. As an added bonus with my composting and recycling, I have very little waste going to the street for trash pickup. It's a nice feeling. Spoiler My neighbor gave the best tip, and one I am aware of, but still valuable: pile leaves on top and they will mulch in naturally. Her dad does this and the worms wash out by the thousands onto the driveway when it rains hard because he has been keeping up with that practice for decades. I actually read that mixing in the leaves into the dirt is bad for the growth of your plants, and that is something I did last season. It's just too acidic when it breaks down and there aren't enough nutrients immediately available. Pile it on top and let the worms do the work for you. I can't wait for these huge live oaks to let go. Gardening and yardwork is fun because you have to keep up with the changing seasons. It's never a stagnant activity. I made 4 baskets out of used Goodwill kitchen colanders and various cuttings and set them up on posts to line the fence by the patio. They are starting to mature and look nice. The creeping jenny really makes baskets look amazing. I think I need to paint the posts dark, though...I'm not loving the look of the plain wood. Spoiler The shaking trick worked! My limmony tomatoes had lots of beautiful green growth and blossoms everywhere but I wasn't seeing a whole lot of tomatoes. I've been shaking the frame every time I go out there and now I have 15 or more new little tomatoes. Spoiler It's been a good summer so far.