[akiko]

So, what about Mint? When it starts flowering do you have to prune all that off too, lest your Moroccan Mint plant goes bitter?

[galleygirl]

I have never HAD so many tomatoes....But they're all staying green, except the sungolds...


Hmmm, just noticed a slight blush on the botttom of one of the Early Girls... But stillll

[akiko]

Now the marjoram is flowering

[akiko]

Yumyum, you could try this

bitezapper

people say it works!

[yumyum]

Akiko -- thanks for posting. I'll check it out.

Today's annoying gardening challenge is two-fold:

1) two houseplants have tiny gnats all over them -- recently repotted and now with a gazillion midgies. Ick. I'm going to spray em down with insecticidal soap -- any other suggestions?

2) my one tomato plant that has ripening fruit has another issue. Just as the little buggers begin to ripen, the bottoms of the tomatoes are flattening and going brown. Looks to my untrained eye like the juicy juice inside is going off and causing them to spoil. effing weather! They are black plums, anyone with experience with this particular variety?

[mongo_jones]

galleygirl, on Jul 24 2006, 09:45 AM, said:

I have never HAD so many tomatoes....But they're all staying green, except the sungolds...


Hmmm, just noticed a slight blush on the botttom of one of the Early Girls... But stillll

my celebrity tomatoes, which had stayed green for almost a month have begun to ripen. and the plants are putting out lots more fruit. seems like they just didn't like the protracted high temperatures we had in july (which seem to now be behind us).

[GG Mora]

yumyum, on Jul 26 2006, 01:32 PM, said:

Akiko -- thanks for posting. I'll check it out.

Today's annoying gardening challenge is two-fold:

1) two houseplants have tiny gnats all over them -- recently repotted and now with a gazillion midgies. Ick. I'm going to spray em down with insecticidal soap -- any other suggestions?

2) my one tomato plant that has ripening fruit has another issue. Just as the little buggers begin to ripen, the bottoms of the tomatoes are flattening and going brown. Looks to my untrained eye like the juicy juice inside is going off and causing them to spoil. effing weather! They are black plums, anyone with experience with this particular variety?

Sounds like blossom-end rot on your tomatoes. Mongo had the same problem.

[yumyum]

Yep, that's it. Shit. My slacker watering tendencies are showing. If I had sexy tomato cages like you, I'd likely take more care with them. (she rationalizes to herself and goes to buy said cages).

edited to add: what happened to mongo's tomatoes? mongo?

[mongo_jones]

the good news, so far at least, is that the other immature fruit on the same plant are not showing any signs of damage.

i'm beginning to get a lot of cherry tomatoes from my sugar snack plants. however, every once in a while a small fruit or two will get wizened, leathery skin and become hard as they begin to ripen. anyone know why/what this is?

[yumyum]

Mongo, if you don't mind, did you up the calcium in addition to watering more regularly? The advice is mixed on this point. My plants are in containers so this HOT weather is even harder on the buggers. The other 4 plants look good, especially my favorite -- Husky.

[mongo_jones]

no, i did nothing. i listened to rancho gordo, which, like skin diving in a septic tank, is not something a smart person would normally think of doing, and decided to wait and see if the problem afflicted any other fruit on the plant--especially since the fruit on the plants next to it were fine. i'm still not out of the woods--the other fruit on this plant may yet rot as they ripen. i've also gone from watering on a schedule to sticking my finger past the soil surface to test for moistness.

i don't know where you're located but we get very intense sunlight at our altitude here in boulder county. i've heard seasoned gardeners recommend terracotta pots for container gardening, as they distribute heat better.

[flyfish]

We are experimenting with a product called Soil Sponge in some of our containers this year. The jury is still out but it seems promising so far.

Fly

[yumyum]

I'm in Boston. The heat has been very bad this summer. I think I'ma try the Rancho Gordo approach myself and wait and see if I can rectify things by more careful watering. What's a schedule?

mongo_jones, on Jul 24 2006, 06:35 PM, said:

no, i did nothing. i listened to rancho gordo, which, like skin diving in a septic tank, is not something a smart person would normally think of doing, and decided to wait and see if the problem afflicted any other fruit on the plant--especially since the fruit on the plants next to it were fine. i'm still not out of the woods--the other fruit on this plant may yet rot as they ripen. i've also gone from watering on a schedule to sticking my finger past the soil surface to test for moistness.

i don't know where you're located but we get very intense sunlight at our altitude here in boulder county. i've heard seasoned gardeners recommend terracotta pots for container gardening, as they distribute heat better.

[mongo_jones]

yumyum, on Jul 26 2006, 02:51 PM, said:

I'm in Boston. The heat has been very bad this summer. I think I'ma try the Rancho Gordo approach myself and wait and see if I can rectify things by more careful watering. What's a schedule?

watering every x number of days whether they need the water or not.

[tanabutler]

galleygirl, on Jul 17 2006, 08:40 PM, said:

yumyum, on Jul 17 2006, 02:07 PM, said:

Yeah, I looked on the web and many people had recommended After-bite. It has a small amount of ammonia which seems to work for most people. I still cannot be arsed to get in the car to go to the store (did I mention it's bloody hot?) but I'll go check out what they carry at CVS. Someone else recommended Aveeno and someone else benadryl. I'll test each one on a different spot and see what works. Right now I'm just working on not touching them.

I get horrible, horrible bites, in massive quantities...Like hives. Usually scratch them til I get scars, Afterbiite has never made a dent..i take antihistamines when I have a ton, and I have found some relief liberally spreading with Gold Bond powder, of all things. It seems to work very well on the ankles and legs, which is where I seem to get bitten in the garden. There's something about the menthol in it that is fairly aneasthetic..

I got some of that After Bite stuff for kids, put it on Logan, and the damned bites got WORSE. I think the key is to do it when they're fresh bites.

Poor baby, he can't stop scratching them.