10-19 update

We are making progress on getting the beds fixed where some of them were leaning. Because the concrete blocks were placed where existing beds were they all began to lean in as the ground slowly compacted. So I had to take the blocks down and redo them by adding dirt under the blocks and compacting it again to make them straight.

Here is one I will hopefully finish tomorrow as we have some zucchini seedlings to plant and I want to get some carrots planted.

The one right next to it I just got done with it this morning. I got the drippers layed out and working and transplanted Cabbage, Toy Choy, and Red Butterhead lettuce seedlings. Seedlings always look tiny when first planted but when they are getting close to harvest time things end up looking pretty crowded. It took a while for me to get that through my head and things always were too crowded. I'm learning but still plant things too close.

The lettuce and choy are under shade cloth because the sun is still pretty intense.

Here is where the seedlings came from. The cabbage was started in individual flats. There are two in each planting so they will still have to be thinned.

Next pic is of the peppers which are doing pretty good. I still keep them under shade cloth during most of the day or else they get real wilty looking. We are still waiting for that first blast of nice cool air.

Next here are the Rome Tomatoes. It seems once tomatoes take root they really take off. I notice these getting larger every day now. Once again most of them have two plants together so they will need to be thinned soon as in today.

My Pineapples are getting larger and you can start to notice some color change on a couple of them.

Next we have some Provider Snap Beans that are blooming and producing a nice crop. Some of the beans will be ready this week to pick. The  Black Beauty Eggplant have been blooming like crazy but so far the flowers just continue to drop. This has not happened here before. Usually as soon as they begin to bloom we start getting fruit but so far nothing. My Butternut and Cucumbers are getting pollinated and I see bees out there doing their thing so this is kind of puzzling. At first I thought it might be because of all the rain we were getting in September but now it hasn't rained in two weeks.The temperature hasn't been too bad either. Just normal to slightly above normal so I will have to do a little research to figure this out.

Next my slicing tomatoes are doing well and now starting to get blooms on them.

The Butternut Squash has done wonderfully so far. I was a little dismayed when I noticed a few weeks ago that several of them had chew marks on them and they weren't even ripe.One nice one was even almost completely eaten. So I began setting out rat traps and sure enough we caught several rats and mice. Now I keep them out there set up and so far every couple of days we will get a few.

I also began setting out traps for raccoons and have caught five so far along with two possums which I take out into the woods a bit away and turn loose. I have had them tear up freshly planted beds over nite after I had worked all day transplanting seedlings and planting seeds.

Now my Cucumbers are taking over. Once again I transplanted them with two in each planting and didn't thin them. Now they are going crazy. Unlike the squash when these began flowering we had tons of male flowers and no females which meant no cukes. The squash began send out lots of females with no males at first which meant no squash. Well now the squash sends up a male flower here and there for every several females and finally the cukes began sending out some females of which a few have now been pollinated.

I am staggering the cuke plantings every couple of weeks instead of all at once. This way I hope not to end up with 20 or more every day or so and then none when they are done.

A bee doing his thing.

Today's cuke transplants.

  
And finally a Pickleworm moth I caught on the cukes. These little things wreak havoc on squash and cucumber plants and are real hard to control. I use Spinosad based insecticide when I first notice them. They like to lay eggs on the flowers and as soon as they hatch the worm burrows into the flower making it hard for them to ingest the insecticide. If it is on a female flower it will then burrow into the fruit and begin eating it from the inside so you get a fruit full of mush if it grows large enough to pick. You will notice the little green worms especially on the tender ends of the vines if you look.

He is just above the bar right about the middle of the pick on the underside of a leaf.

That's all for today.