Good morning, It is really quite a
contrast with comparing last year to this year.
By this time last year we had 3 layers
of butternut squash under our bed. This year there is one layer on
one side of the bed. Last year I finished my first crops of tomatoes
and the plants started their second bloom with a bountiful fall
harvest. The toms never fully recovered from the July stress. There
were fewer “snake like” sweet potatoes last year. This year there
are an abundance. This with leaf burn on the okra are very good
indicators that I was not watering enough.
I feel all of these observations are
symptoms of how hot and dry it was in July. I hope that my fall
greens and Cole crops are very productive otherwise items for bag
sales or veggies for market will be greatly decreased.
A good note since the ground squirrel
is not around I have not had any sweets destroyed by rodents (so far,
there still are 2 beds to be dug).
In years past if root knot nematodes
attached a sweet crown, all of the tubers were effected. This year
since I used the refined neem oil product, the effected tubers (so
far) are much fewer. Although there are a number of sweets that have
russet like skins. This does not effect the flavor but it does
effect store-ability. These will be the first to be sold. I
intentionally planted a sweets in a known root knot bed just so I
could see how the neem product performed. This will be the next bed
to be harvested.
I have made the observation that when I
stopped chemigating with the neem product was when I started seeing
Root Knot mortality. During August with all the moisture, I felt it
unwise to add more water with chemigation. It is unlikely that we
will have another August like this past one (in the near future) but
I think I will chemigate regardless.
On another note the time to start my
bulb onion seeds is hastily approaching. It is hard to believe that
September is half over and That October 31 ( sowing date) is just
about here.
Since the summer rush and canning
season is just about over it is nice to know things will be calming
down soon. What a ride this summer has been!!!!!
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