General Schvantzkopf said:


I've had my worst harvest ever, the only thing that did well this year was
my blueberry bushes and my cucumbers. Most of my tomato plants died,
those
that didn't have only produced enough tomatoes for a couple of quarts of
sauce (thus the $500/plate estimate). I don't think the remaining tomatoes
are going to ripen because the plants think it's fall (the leaves on my
blueberry bushes have already turned color). My corn isn't maturing
either, I've got small ears with missing kernels. The peas and beans all
died in July.

My peas always die in July. (And the spring lettuces that are left alway
bolt.) Always.

This year we have had adequate heat and adequate rain to mid-July.
Then the free water stopped so it's all been irrigation since.

The sweet corn has been fantastic (no earworms, no bird damage).

The tomatoes have been great, ripening in a steady stream, except
now I'm getting some BER, what with the lack of rain. Some leaf
spotting showing up on the tomatoes in cages, but the staked tomatoe
are OK.

Pole beans have hit a lull, but should pick up again (especially if we
get some rain).

Peppers ok, but the damned pepper maggots are back hard this year.
Should have sprayed for them.

Summer squashes have done really well. Pulled one that looked
diseased, otherwise no sign of squash vine borer. Hitting the stems
every day or so with pyrethrum spray (once they got too bulky to
hand-pick the borer eggs) seems to have worked. Or maybe we
just didn't have as many moths this year. Or both...

Winter squashes have spread all around. Lots of green ones here
and there. Don't notice any butternuts, though, just Rumba and
Tetsukabuto, and I've only spotted one jack o'lantern pumpkin.

Onions have been good, leeks are sizing up, got some decent looking
kohlrabi out there, and one cabbage that grew from a seed in the kohlrabi
package that's really tiny. Have no idea what the celeriac are doing
under the ground (that's an experiment) and the potatoes I felt for
seemed small. The potato plants have already mostly died back.

There are two beds cleared and prepped for fall lettuce and bok choi,
and the plants are well started in 3" square pots. Just want it to rain,
or at least have a good promise of rain, or even a *really cloudy* day,
before I transplant them out.

July was solid torrential rain, and August has been cold
which is why the plants think it's fall.

I'm seeing some trees coloring up early, probably because it's been so
dry lately and all that leaf surface is more a liability than an asset, with
the days already growing rapidly shorter.

I'm in Massachusetts near Lowell and Nashua. Has anyone around here
had
better results than these?

I'm in Michigan, where I guess it has been a better summer than yours,
mostly.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

After enlightenment, the laundry.