August 21

I've come to the conclusion that the full sun is too intense for growing most crops in July and August here in SW Fla. Next time I will try extensive use of shade cloth and hopefully it will help. My carrots were a disaster. S few came up and promptly died. My green beans flowered and most just fell off and then they began shriveling up. The strawberries weren't looking too great but were growing. So the last two weekends I redid some beds and some plantings.

I dug up the strawberry bed and trimmed the crowns. Then redid the bed and replanted the plants along with the ones I had started from the runners earlier. Also I added shade cloth and now the plants are doing great. One thing I noticed when I was turning the beds was the large amount of grubs in them. Usually they destroy people's lawns because they feed on the roots of the grass. Instead they were feeding on the roots of my plants. Add in the heat and humidity and it equals garden failure.

Here are a few pics of the berries now:

Some are beginning to produce new runners.

Some potted and some new starts from the trimmings of the crowns.

The green bean bed was redone and I will plant lettuce there. I put double layered shade cloth over it to keep the sun from baking the newly turned and amended soil.

Watermelon is one crop which tolerates and thrives in the heat. Mine are doing really well. A few problems can crop up though such as getting a lot of rain at once. This will cause some to split. Luckily for me only one did.

Another one was growing and then just started to rot. Maybe blossom end rot?

But the rest are doing fine so far. I've picked two and there are about 15 more out there.

One of my pineapple plants is producing. They usually take about 18 months to 2 years to make a pineapple. Growing them is easy. All you have to do i twist the top off the fruit and then begin peeling the bottom leaves off. As you work your way up the top you will see small roots in the stalk. Then you just plant it. That's all.

My butternut squash is growing well. I have been having a problem with pickle worms attacking them. Each day I would find about thirty or more larvae chewing on the leaves and the tops of the vines. Finally I sprayed them with Monterey insect spray which contains Spinosad, a bacterium which kills many chewing insects especially caterpillars. I will also use BT for the pillars but the Spinosad has a long lasting effect where as the BT quickly degrades in sun light.

The plants just in the last few days began producing male flowers. For a couple weeks the females would bloom but without the males you won't get any squash. Now maybe I will get some squash.

Male flowers only have a stalk like this

The females have the fruit like this:

The bed with the carrots I redid and planted Derby bush beans. When they come up if it is still too hot in the sun I will put shade cloth over them as well. I also started some Romaine and Red Leaf lettuce along with some California Wonder bell peppers and am trying some Stevia for sweetener. Until the next update. Have a wonderful day!!