Devv said:
Wow! You're killing it!
Very interesting about the maters liking the shade, but I can see why. They just have to be getting all the sun they need.
I struggle with the peppers here, maters grow like crazy. I'm 6'3" and cut them back 12"s 10 days ago because they were eye level. Now they're even higher. For me that extra growth never offers any return so I clip now. My peppers don't look near as good as yours...I've been fighting high soil PH, which I'm sure is locking out the nutes. It's in the mid eights. I added elemental sulfur last spring, so another soil test is needed. I'm sure 40"s of rain leached that all out..
Those peepers sure do look fantastic!
Thanks Devv. Eveything is out of control but that's better than the polar opposite. The maters are crazy. I've been trimming back the row enders so they don't overgrow the peppers. They refill the space very quickly. Like they seem to be determined to fill up every nearby cubic foot as soon as possible. The shady tomatoes are also crazy but it seems to be a valid small scale case study on growing tomatoes in the deep south.
skullbiker said:
I have never had any luck tying up or staking pepper plants. I find the only thing that really works(especially once they have pods hanging on them) is my reinforcement wire cages. I try to get them on early enough so the plant can grow through them.
Hey skull, as has happened at least twice before, you have given me a good idea. Difficult to implement but when I consider the management of these pepper plants over the next six months, maybe worth the bother. Thanks for thinking for me again :-)
stc3248 said:
Aside from those few sick ones your grow is looking awesome! Hopefully the bad weather and sickness is all in your rear view! Those shady tomatoes look really good! Your hay bales are getting harder to identify...all just looks like well composted soil.
I appreciate the good thoughts Shane. I had my first garden on my own when I was 13 and have never had a garden as crazy as this one although I've done much larger and more ambitious grows before. But then again, I've never grown anything in what amounts to straight compost.
I'm definitely not impressed with the performance in the more recently conditioned bales that are more proper for bale gardening. Very stagnant growth compared to what's in the ground and what I potted up. I am very happy I got the new bales to compare. At two bucks a bale it's worthwhile even if the highest use turns out to be growing bush beans and providing a large amount of future compost.
A lot of these bale plants are falling out to disease but the internal temperature of the bales in my isolation area are at least 15° higher than any of the adjacent potted plants and 10° higher than around my garden plantings. That may explain the disease. The bales out in the full sun near the garden are cooler and much less problematic. Go figure.
BigCedar said:
DW, thanks for all the information. That's pretty insane about the farming and "family farms" in other areas of the US I guess I'm sheltered living here in western WA my whole life.. Small family farm means an upscale XL backyard grow around here, no planes, herbicides, etc. It's a bit mind bending for me to know that in this day and age practices like that are still acceptable.
Glad to see most of your plants are doing very well, your dedication to the sick ones is respectable to say the least. The tomatoes shade vs sun is so nuts, if I tried to grow tomatoes in WA shade I would see little growth if I was lucky, and very little fruit! Climates are crazy. I hope everything continues to do well for you. You seem like you have it all under control!
Although I used to work as an ag pilot and have seen plenty of stuff, I've never lived around industrial farming until the use of the 80 acres behind us changed from cattle to this back in 2012. The ONLY benefit is I haven't caught a rattlesnake around our house since late 2012 when they started working the land. Prior to that I caught them regularly, including two young ones within a week and both in the same place just below our back porch and both within 6' of our back door.
Thanks Brandon but I'm not sure if anything is under control. This year it's more like crisis management than gardening.
