Zucchini

[Michael Trew]

It was mentioned on here not long ago about end rot. My zucchini plants took off, and are huge. I picked one over a foot long today that seemed quite solid, but the two others I picked were shorter, and the ends were starting to rot. Is there a reason for this? I think I'll just chop the bad end off.

I gave one of the soft-end ones to my neighbor who's going to fry it. I'm in a debate what I'll make, but I might batter and fry some of it, serve with tomato sauce, and shred the rest of the zucchini for zucchini bread. As is tradition, my cabbage was half eaten, and the ones that weren't eaten look like they'll amount to nothing, for some reason. At least the groundhogs are leaving my zucchini alone this year.

I haven't grown green beans in years, and I left many of them on the vine too long. The pods swelled up and became too firm. My tomato plants are huge, but I've only had a few ripe tomatoes so far. Bell peppers and banana peppers didn't grow much. I don't have a single bell pepper ready. I haven't hardly looked at the other bed with potatoes, onions, garlic, and horseradish. I think I planted leeks this year, too. Watermelon, carrots, and a few other things I'm forgetting.

[songbird]

usually blossom end rot is a sign of uneven water supply or too much watering in general. so it depends upon what your weather has been like. other related issued could be not enough calcium in the garden soil or too much nitrogen fertilizer.

when it shows up here it is usually on the tomatoes and only the first ones to ripen (because the plants did not have a fully developed root system while setting the first fruits) so i often can avoid the problem by removing the first flowers on the plants so those fruits won't develop. even watering during the hot spells also makes a difference.

groundhogs always like to eat whatever they can get at in the gardens here, but i have fences up which do discourage them. if i see them in the grassy area i will hunt them. not something i like but they can do a lot of damage quickly along with their holes in the banks of the ditches for their dens aren't good for the ditches.

some beans are ok to pick at the shelly stage (before the beans have started to dry out) and can be shelled out and cooked. they should cook faster than a dry bean. some varities of beans can also be eaten at the full pod stage but this isn't normal for a lot of green bean varieties. or you can leave them to finish up drying and use them as a dry bean later or keep the seed for replanting.

usually i can get a few pickings from my fresh bean plants and then i'll leave the rest to finish as dry beans as we can never have too many of those.

do you have trouble getting enough sun for your gardens?

songbird

[Michael Trew]

When we had the dry/heat earlier this year, I was watering the garden heavily daily, or lightly twice daily (morning and/or evening). That was probably my mistake.

Hmm, so you just let the pod dry out, and save the beans inside, using them as you used baged dry beans later?

The lower garden, everything but the onions/potatoes/garlic and the like, is part-shade due to a large tree. Oops. Shame, because it's the perfect location, otherwise.

[songbird]

if your garden is mostly sand or mineral based gravel then that may be required, but for us that's really not needed and would be too much too often.

"baged" as in bagged or aged? i'm assuming aged. :)

yes, pretty much all beans i grow are edible at dry bean stage (there are a few i've had that i would not consider edible but they aren't many). but also since i do cross-breed and develop new varieties i pay attention to any new seeds that show up as i sure don't want to eat them. on top of that if i want to keep the existing varieties relatively stable i have to cull out odd seeds to make sure the traits i want are preserved.

any kind of shade is going to impact production for some of the common garden vegetables. if you want more tomato production you may have to go for cherry or patio varieties.

we have a lot of green tomatoes on the plants but it is still early for us for ripening along with the fact that things seem a bit later due to lack of rains for so long. things just don't grow as well here on well water as they do with some good rains (the pH of the well water is a bit alkaline vs. rain being more neutral to slightly acidic probably a part of why).

songbird

[Michael Trew]

I meant like dry beans you buy in bags at the store, sorry.

I noticed today that there are some small bell peppers, and they are flowering, but taking their time. Oh well.