August 25, 2016

Good morning, It is that time of year where I start giving thoughts to next years garden. I always try to have next years garden planned in October. One thing for certain this has been a very strange year. With any luck it will not be repeated.

None the less I have given thoughts as to some changes I will do next year. The first thing is to work at having enough mulch so that all of the garden can be evenly mulched. The beds that were mulched the best sustained the summer heat the best too. This really is a “no brainer” idea.

I am not for sure why but all of my red tomato beds started to ripen at the same time. Although the second bed that was started a month later did have harvests that lasted a little longer. I am thinking that I will start the second crop around the end of January towards the first of February. With hope the first red tomatoes will be finishing as the second one begins. My only concern is that this planting date is about the time we can expect some angry weather. With luck having a drip system, mulch and fabric, this can be remedied.

This year I tried a new winter storage squash. It was sown a little late and started to bloom just as the real hot weather hit. Like with my butternuts ALL of the blooms and very immature fruit aborted during this period. With the cooling both of these squash are trying to make up for lost time.

Next year I plan to plant a bed of each of these two squash so that I can compare. Some of the things I will compare will be: harvest quantities, length of store-ability, and customer acceptance.

Some things I have noticed this year about the new squash is that it does appear to be a very good draw for cucumber beetles (possibly a trap crop), it is a much more aggressive grower than my butternuts (it has been difficult turning the growing tips to keep the vines in the bed).

It will be interesting to see if my storage techniques will work with these squash (They are more round. I will see if they will fit into my storage trays or stay put under the bed. The butternuts are longer than round and fit well into both of these places).

I am going to purchase enough sweet sets to plant all four beds in April. My cutting technique works quite well but it was difficult to get them established this year because it was getting into the July “fry zone” we had this year and I will be interested to see if they make. Sweets like hot days and warm nights, time will tell how these two sweet beds do. Not for sure why but the first planted sweet beds are not showing the signs of sweet potatoes pushing up soil. I have started the sweet harvest and a pound size sweet is the exception , most are smaller.

Even with all the recent rains as I was digging the first sweets, the soil is not damp, but not dry either. Also I am noticing that there are a number of “snake like” tubers. This is an indication of not enough moisture. This summer before the rains, I would drip for 5 and 1/2 hours every three days. I also during this time noticed the signs of iron chlorosis, the indication of too much water too frequently. Such a confusing year.

As for the summer peas, all the vines have set peas. I hope the guineas do not help themselves and I get some peas to see if I have found a warm weather strain of snow peas.

All of this is exciting and we will have to wait and see where it takes us.

This week I anticipate to harvest: chard, kale, green onions, carrots, beans, chilies, summer squash, tomatoes, and okra. In storage I have butternut squash, garlic, sweet potatoes and bulb onions.