Shopsmith Forums

swampgator wrote:Just to share some of my experiences in gardening: Blossom rot of a tomato, too much nitrogen or acid in the soil. To cure, as the tomatoes set on the vines, place some lime each week on the soil under the tomatoes.

A lot of soil is likely short on nitrogen as it is out of my compost bin and that tends to be deficient in that regard. Not going to be acid here either, soil here is never acid unless you really work at it. The major factor is the uneven moisture, weather has been out of control with a lot more rain days then normal. BTW we use egg shells in the tomato patch which normally works pretty well except for this year. The bigger tomato have not come in yet but they are looking pretty good. The smaller ones are something new to us this year called "Forth of July". They came in about a month later then their name would imply.

Vine borers, this applies to cucumbers, squashes and melons. I have excellent results with Sevrin Dust at the base of the plant. There is a beautiful little fly, multicolored, that bores in the bend of the vine and lays eggs. The larvae matures into a worm that eats the interior of the vine, killing it. If caught early enough, you can slice the vine lengthwise and extract the worm. Cover that part (the surgery) with mud to allow vine to heal.

We try to stay away for pesticides, while I have used Sevin we don't any more. One of the better ones but indiscriminate in what it kills. We have not had the vine problem for the last years so that was unexpected. There is a product from tanglefoot that works quite well. Just don't have any on hand now. I have taken worms out before, questionable if these squash will recover but I will try the mud idea, use to use masking tape so maybe that has been my issue.

Chain link fences will not keep out rabbits. Deer can jump over most fences. Rabbits love peas, beans, eggplant and other such softer vegetables. I had them destroy my last two, so I buy the unlabeled stuff at the grocery or go to the farmers market. Reminds me, I have some freshly frozen peaches I think I will enjoy. I hope this info is helpful.

Steve, the old swampgator

sawmill wrote:Our pickles and squash is coming on very slow this year,BUT I hit the jackpot today. I have about a 1/4 mile of road frontage in front of my woods that I brush hog down once a year. This spring I hauled about 20 dump trailers of horse manure in this area as fill. I f you know anything about horse manure it grows every weed known to man. But today I found ahalf dozen summer squash plants and a couple pickle plants growing. I pick 14 or 15 squash and a half dozen pickles from them These plants are just loaded. A few years ago I had my backhoe out there digging out stumps and small rush. I found several of these funny looking plants that some people would die to smoke up. They got buried in the brush