Mac you make me jealous. I wish I planted some leaf lettuce this year.

It's not too late----plant some in a pot and keep it indoors next to a west or south-facing window. Leaf lettuce doen't like hot weather but it will still grow.

You wouldn't believe everything I have going on.

And I can't quite figure out how to post pics of it all without breaking the rules....

How do you keep your leaf lettuce cool in Chattanooga?
It is getting in the 90's here now and if it doesn't like hot it will not like it here. I guess next year I could plant it next to the corn for shade. LOL.

A big problem with tomatoes is bottom rot - brown nasty crap on the bottoms that ruin them...

Any ideas here?

In the fifty foot rows I have (three of them) I dumped a forty pound bag of garden lime (pulverised limestone)


But I still saw one attacked from the bottom...


What should I do?

From what I understand it is a calcium deficit

Mine is doing it too, it's the weather, I'm going to try epsen salts, it usually clears it up, planting gypsum in the hole with them helps too.

I think you are on the right track with replenishing the calcium. It really needs to be replaced BEFORE the condition occurs for the best results.

My lettuce is planted in a raised bed on a west-facing wall that gets about 6 hours of full sun. It has morning and late-afternoon shade, which I think is the key. You can plant lettuce in a container INSIDE and have fresh lettuce all year round. Jus put the container in a south or west facing window.

Epsom salts will help with the bottom rot, as Maples suggested.

Tomato Blossom End Rot: How To Stop Tomato Blossom Rot

If you love boiled eggs, as I do, keep the water and shells, once cooled, the water is high in calcium, it's great for African Violets, I plan to pour some on my tomato plant, you put the shells in the ground when planting, a big deal with roses, tea bags too, put them around the plants after you've used them to make tea. Recycling is what our grandparents did, that was fertilizer back in their day, today we call it organic farming, amazing ain't it, the concept is old.

Hey Wolfie, I found something you might just like to have a look at:
Gray Wolf Picture

BTW, blossom end rot treatment requires removal of all the rotten fruit.

This hot weather is going to be brutal on the garden....will keep you posted as to which veggies survive the 110 degree heat.

"It's a hundred and ten - a hundred and ten in the shade
I'm gonna lay me down right here, c'mon and bury me..."
~John Fogerty

I set up sprinklers around mine that have 3/4 inch wide spikes on the bottoms of them. I figured out that a set of PVC pipes driven into the ground allowed me to move the sprinklers from one area to the next and poke them into the tops of the pipes without driving them into the ground each time (which is good, 'cuz they're made out of plastic)

I should have shot pix of the cukes I harvested this week, didn't think of it. Two of them measured right at 36 inches end to end, and nearly 6 inches thick. I used some to pickle a few gallons of hamburger stackers:

9 cups water
-Bring to boil and add pickling spices in a cloth bag or tea ball. Either use pre-mixed pickle spice, or use garlic, mustard seed, dill and/or cilantro.
-Once the water is spiced, remove the spices and discard them

6 cups vinegar of your choice
3/4 cup salt
-Bring to boil and drop in all of your SLICED cucumbers (*Because they're sliced, I don't make a seperate 10% brine and soak them in it overnight first)
-Remove from heat immediately and cover. Let cool down without bothering it and when they are down to room temperature pack the slices in jars, then cover with the pickle juice leaving 1/4 inch head space, and refrigerate.
Done like this they are ready to eat right away! :-X22

(and they're DANG good)

:D


Bruce: I archived it - make a nice background, I think

Mark: Everything organic that is left over at my place goes into the garden somewhere, even things that go bad on the vines. I now have a seperate patch for nothing at all but making compost. I forgot about Epsom Salts - I'm going to put some in there today (Nice having a dollar general across the road, but it's the only store for at least a mile - and that next one is just a country bait & tackle shop)

*Egg SHELLS I knew about, egg water I never thought of... Hmm, I like it

BTW; I ordered a Key Lime tree from Parks Seeds this morning, should be here in a few months (they ship out in fall). That will give me an orange tree, Meyer Lemon, and Limes - all the fixin's for anything I might want to do with Tequila!!! }>

Well, I am assessing the damage from the scorching heat to the torrential rains----looks like the peppers and cucumbers enjoyed the weather and are doing just fine. The tomatoes are not happy, and many plants couldn't take the stress. The Peas/green beans & lettuce have given up the ghost.

The PLUS side to this weather has been how much the herbs have loved it. Lemon grass is waist high! I harvested about a bushel of herbs this weekend: 2 kinds of rosemary, 2 kinds of basil, sage, peppermint & spearmint. Have been giving rosemary & sage to anyone who looks at me for too long.

I am seriously considering a fall planting of lettuce, peas and greens in September.

While on vacation out of town, I was afraid that my garden and potted herbs would not survive. I was pleasantly surprised to find upon my return that the cucumbers are OK, the peppers are quite happy, and the herbs never missed me---they are growing gangbusters.

Sadly, most of the tomatoes have died, but a few plants are still fighting the good fight. I will harvest some more peppers and herbs at the end of this week.

I was looking for ways to get rid of JOHNSONGRASS (yes - it is sometimes spelled without a space)

ALL sites said to cut down the green to the dirt - but one or two said to feed the microbes in the soil by spreading GRANULATED SUGAR on the ground, and lightly water it in.

It feeds the microbes and strengthens them - which is bad for weeds.

They also made mention of "VINEGAR BASED HERBICIDES"

~I have a name now for what I have been looking for: "SOIL MORPHOLOGY"

The science of transforming soil