Tooooooo manyyyyy tomatoesssssssssssss

Well.  With 6 well-producing tomato plants, this is just too much.  Not to mention the one cherry tomato (Jasper variety), whose leaves are riddled now with septoria leaf spot or blight or something like that but keeps producing a nice gradual harvest over the last several weeks -- and also not to mention the the flops from the north bed most of which produced a few small tomatoes.

Too many tomatoesssssssssss.  It's been workable so far, but the freezer is definitely starting to approach capacity -- and I foresee quite a rush of tomatoes over the next couple of weeks.

Glad to see that the GEFC seems to accept people's fresh produce -- will most likely go that route soon.

So yes, the row of 3 x 2 tomatoes in the central bed, 3 of Big Tofu Plus and 3 Tofusteak:  One of the Tofusteak isn't that at all, ended up being some kind of determinate variety, so puny.  The others I had all topped several weeks ago in case that would help them start ripening, so they haven't had any new growth in a while, and each of these plants doesn't have a huge number of tomatoes, though many are quite big, so the cumulative amount of tomatoes is... a lot.

Then there's the one Tofusteak "leftover" at the south part of the central bed -- which, WOW, is just LOADED with tomatoes -- not giant ones, but very decent sized.  Really all I'd need is 2 plants like this plus one cherry tomato and that would be plenty for me.  But, you never know how plants will turn out (look how all the north bed ones ended up being total duds except for the Jasper), so, it is what is is.

Can't complain!

Leaf miner damage still happening to (untulled) chard

The experiment I started a few weeks ago by removing all miner-damaged-chard -- well, there's now a bunch more miner-damaged chard.

No big deal, just goes to show I guess chard needs to remain covered the whole summer.

Praying mantis!!

Oh wow!  A praying mantis flew from the northmost carrots into the nearby Jasper tomato against the vertical structure!  Definitely flew.  Is green and skinny.  Amazing camouflage!  I wonder if someone in the neighbourhood bought a mantis egg sac and this fellow made his way here.  Not many "pests" around for him though -- although, tons of sparrows visiting the yard and I read that mantises can eat birds -- yikes...

Hadn't seen any mantises since that first one a few years ago, whose egg sac never "hatched" the next spring.

100th ZUCCHINI HARVESTED!!!!

Woot!  I guess this makes up for all those recent years of puny wimpy zucchini plants that hardly produced anything at all.  Still unsure whether it's due to new varieties this year, or because of the kelp/MRP I gave them at planting and along the way.

The plants are definitely still slumped, but some more zukes are still on the way.

Shade container potato experiment: Results of container #1 = 0.75 lbs from 4 seed potatoes

Emptied the first of the three containers along the fence, which were in full shade.  This container's plants are fully brown/dried/disappeared, so figured it was time.

At first I thought there were zero potatoes, but it turns out they potatoes were all in the lower ~third of the container.

So, a non-impressive 0.19 pound of potatoes per seed potato...  Better than 0.0, but, yikes!

The blight might have been a factor for sure, since the yield in the north bed was low too.

Will see what the next two shade containers bring, later on once their plants are 100% dead too.

Garlic bulbils scattered randomly in central bed

The one volunteer garlic, which I had let the scape be, turned into the cutest little bulbils.

Today I decided they had dried enough (on the plant) so harvested them and scattered them in the central bed.  Didn't dig them in or anything.

Carrot weevil damage in the upper third of a few carrots so far

Not a lot of loss from this so far.  I had noticed some carrot tops flopped over a while ago and wondered why... this must be it.

Just cut off the affected tops, the rest of the carrot parts were fine.

The weevils don't fly, so hopefully not a big deal for future years if I rotate the carrot crop enough.

Good info on this page:  http://omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/93-077.htm

Might have "cooked" the fall pea seeds under the plastic

Oops.  Very hot, direct sun.... might not have much a fall crop of peas.

Berry alley: Blackberries and thimbleberries in season

A good amount of blackberries and thimbleberries at berry alley.  Even one raspberry which was extremely delicious.  The blackberries look to be going for a few more weeks, though the thimbleberries might be near their end.  

Neighbourhood apples wormy so far

Collected 2 or 3 so far -- looked wormy from outside, were all rotten inside.  Discarded.  They were on the smaller side compared to last year, so, maybe later in the season...

Tomato harvest ramping up -- a few big tomatoes per day

^^^

Dill (fall crop) sowed directly (didn't start in PT)

In the central bed's south part.  Just to fill in a gap.  (And I'm getting bored of so much buckwheat everywhere!)

Pre-soaking peas (Sugar Snap) and beans (Kentucky Wonder Wax)

For an attempt at a fall crop. Will sow them tomorrow under the west vertical structure.

The Kentucky Wonder Wax beans sowed August 4th took (5 or 6 of them), though none of the Great Northern ones did.  So anyway, all of these beans are the same kind then.

Sowed lettuce (Romaine "Paris Island Cos"), radishes ("Cherry Belle"), and forget-me-nots in north bed

Sprinkled all together throughout this bed south of the buckwheat sowed today.

I hate radishes!  But just for fun, figured why not.

The forget-me-nots are just for fun too.

Sprinkled some pre-soaked alfalfa pellets in the bed here at the same time (not a ton).

Sowed buckwheat in north bed, imm south of vertical structure

Pre-soaked in water for ~24 hours, then thickly sowed (1/2 cup of seeds!!).  Covered with soil, then watered, then covered with clear plastic.

This is the first time I didn't do any pre-sprouting in PT -- figured it's worth a try.

Fertilized all zucchinis with Azomite (first time), MRP, and kelp meal (1 Tbsp each)

The 7 original/tulled zucchinis have really been slowing down over the past several weeks.  The ongoing/increasing powdery mildew could be a factor, but I figured why not give them a boost with Azomite (bought some today), MRP, and kelp meal, in case it might help.  At the same time I figured why not do the same for the three untulled zukes, though the one by the hydro meter is looking great, and though all three of these will likely succumb to SVB in the not too distant future.

Another 1.25 pounds of potatoes (measly) -- total of 2 pounds so far

... and that's from $27 worth of seed potatoes!!  Compared to ~$5 at the store for a 1.5 pound bag of the nice small potatoes... d'oh.

There are still the 3 pots of potatoes, plus a small area next to the a/c where I had put the runtiest seed potatoes, so maybe a smidge more to come...

On the bright side, the potatoes themselves look fine (though definitely small, even for fingerlings), so at least there is *some* harvest.

Next year I'll look for a blight-resistant variety.  (Avoid waxy, because they aren't good for mashing.)

Big Tofu Plus tomato harvested -- a nice big one!

Wow, these are probably the biggest tomatoes I've grown!  Will give it a few more days to ripen inside before trying it.

SVB moth seen laying eggs (on untulled zukes), including on top of leaves

Watched her for a few minutes, followed along removing eggs where I could.

Also, noticed one of the leaves in the tulled zucchini in the west bed (south pair), has a little reddish dot on top of a leaf that isn't touching the netting.  I don't think it's a SVB egg, but, am not totally sure.  Will try to keep an eye on it.

And another cabbage butterfly in tulled zucchini

Samed zuke pair as last time (west bed's north pair).

The main tomatoes are finally starting to ripen!

Wow, must have been those two days of rain a few days ago, but finally some of the many nice big green tomatoes in the central bed are starting to ripen.  (The cherry tomatoes and the poorly tomatoes in the north bed had started ripening a while ago.)

80th (and 81st and 82nd) zucchini harvested today!

Several of the plants have really slumped, but I dare say I think by season's end it will be over 100 zucchinis!

Another cabbage butterfly in different tulled zucchini!

This time also in the west bed, but the north pair (which is also next to the broccoli bed).

2 cabbage butterflies inside a tulled zucchini bed!!! Must have hatched from kale leaf used as mulch?

I highly doubt they would have been motivated to crawl underneath the tulle given it was just zucchinis inside.  So, I'm guessing they were eggs/caterpillars on kale leaves when I used some to mulch a while back, then emerged this morning as these two butterflies.  It's the two zukes in the west bed, southmost part -- which is right next to the broccoli bed, so maybe they wormed their way in that way instead... 

Pre-soaked beans sowed (two kinds)

The brown beans (Kentucky Wonder Wax) are on the east part, the white beans (Great Northern) are on the west part.  Not covering with anything, so maybe the birds etc. might eat them, but in which case, oh well.

Bean seeds soaking in water, will transplant tomorrow

Would need a warm fall to make it to harvest, but figured I'd try, just to use up the rest of the beans in these two packages:

- Kentucky Wonder Wax (brown beans)

- Great Northern (white beans)

2 of the PT Eureka cucumbers transplanted to central bed temporarily

Figured I should let them get their feet under them before moving them to the north part of the west bed under the roof.

The other 2 Eureka cucumbers haven't sprouted yet, neither either of the Marketmore.

"Cos Lettuce Mix" and "Baby Pak Choi" scattered in central bed's south part

Just to use up the rest of these random seeds.

Didn't even scratch them in -- will see if they take care of themselves.

The bought basil is getting blighty-looking spots on some leaves (not downy mildew)

Just a few leaves affected so far, otherwise the basil plants look good still.

Haven't seen any of these spots on my home-started basil (Prospera) yet.

No sign of downy mildew on any of the basils yet.

SVB worms (tiny) found in several leaf stems of the un-tulled a/c zucchini

I had been occasionally checking for / removing eggs, but not religiously (because, 60-something zucchinis and counting, so far...).  Had a closer look today at some bruised / dying / dead leaves -- removed them and inspected, and sure enough, found several itty bitty teeny tiny wormies in there.

My guess is some have by now made it into the main stem.  I won't interfere with those, will leave them be.

So far this plant has given me 1 zucchini.  (The first one on it had fizzled, but the second one took.)  I think it will give a few more before the SVB zap it.

Haven't found any worms yet in the two smaller central-bed untulled zucchinis.  (Nor in any of the tulled zucchinis though I don't look closely at the tulled ones.)

More cucumbers started in PT for fall harvest

2 Marketmore (the last two from the foil packet collection)

4 Eureka

started in PT.

Figured why not, and since only two of the in-ground seem to have made it so far.  (Though there are also the 3 in the pot...)