BrazosDog02 said:

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Shoot...west of San Antonio...ain't nothin growing in the garden with daytime highs over 103....lol. Things are just surviving. Still harvesting a lot of everything but it's not all that happy...


Except okra. That stuff seems to grow like nobodies business this time of year.

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Okra is just coming into its prime season. It's in the cotton family. Loves the heat.

lazuras_dc said:

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How do you guys feel about ants in/around the garden? Need to get rid of them?

I've been harvesting basil and spinach from my garden the past month but just finally harvested my first okra, gunna fry it up tonight to see how it goes !

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Speaking of fried okra, why is it that restaurants can't figure out that okra should be battered in corn meal, not flour???

Martin Cash said:

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BrazosDog02 said:

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Shoot...west of San Antonio...ain't nothin growing in the garden with daytime highs over 103....lol. Things are just surviving. Still harvesting a lot of everything but it's not all that happy...


Except okra. That stuff seems to grow like nobodies business this time of year.

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Okra is just coming into its prime season. It's in the cotton family. Loves the heat.

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If it loves heat then it'll love my garden this next couple weeks. Showing temps well over 100 every day for about 12 days straight in Midland.

My okra has been doing really well though. Squash is doing okay. Eggplant really good. My biggest complaint so far have been peppers and tomatoes. I think the peppers may have just been too crowded and not getting enough sun.

Martin Cash said:

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lazuras_dc said:

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How do you guys feel about ants in/around the garden? Need to get rid of them?

I've been harvesting basil and spinach from my garden the past month but just finally harvested my first okra, gunna fry it up tonight to see how it goes !

---

Speaking of fried okra, why is it that restaurants can't figure out that okra should be battered in corn meal, not flour???

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And why can't they figure out I don't like to eat the caps?? (I understand it's probably more of a processing/ machinery issue). But still, who wants to eat stems? It's like finding tomatoes with the core in them in a salad or pico!! It's not right!!

Any idea what's chewing up my corn leaves? I planted a little less than a month ago and it's growing much better than my previous attempt, but this damage has me worried. I did have a few of the smaller stalks that were completely cut through, which from my brief Googling makes me think it's cutworms. I found a worm that looked like the pictures online, but haven't seen any more since.

Looks like grasshopper damage to me.

okay folks...need some advice...first time gardner. Live in Humble. Raised bed 4'x8'. I have some cucumbers, squash, zucchini, bell peppers and bush beans. Filled with "vegetable mix" from Living Earth and some compost. This bed drains FAST = poor water retention. I still have several inches to the top of the bed so after this growing is done I plan on ramping up the soil. I have an irrigation system installed with drip irrigation and feel I have it at right balance between over and under watering. I learned because the soil doesn't seem to hold well that plants weren't getting nutrients enough so have been fertilizing with small amount regularly. Some powdery mildew that I've treated with daconil but done so sparingly really try to keep airflow going to help this. Had some black end rot and adjusted watering to help that but then rains came and made it bad again but think it's back under control. Fighting vine borers and was doing good until lately but still okay. Last few days have seen aphids pop up. I use Capt Jacks insecticide spray (pump sprayer) and 7 dust. Now that you have some idea of my situation here are my questions:
1) zucchini's....have 2 plants..they are growing well and will produce fruit but the fruit never flowers. I got ONE zucchini early in the season. Male flowers pop up and do okay...not great. But the fruit always dies off after it gets a few inches long. Any idea why the fruit won't flower?
2) Squash...both straight and crooked neck. 5 plants total. Similar to the Zucc....growing well and yielded more fruit than Zucc but not by much. However, it is producing LOTS of fruit that doesn't flower. And plenty of male flowers. For example, one plant within last week put out 3 fruits...none flowered!! They'd get a few inches long and then shrivel up. Any idea why female fruit won't flower?
3) Cucumbers have done well. Yielded an okay number and have them on trellis. Seems to be well and no issues except I did have one vine randomly die out of 4. The cucumbers get yellow white fairly quickly once they get to 6 inches long or so and are a little bitter. Any thoughts on how to make sweeter?
4) bell peppers...took a while but with the heat they started doing okay. Get small peppers but happy with what I get. Seems to come in spurts...no peppers for a while and then all of a sudden have 6. Any suggestions on how to get size on them?
5) bush beans...got in the ground late. Squash grew over and gave shade and now have a few beans on them. Good number of flowers. Not sure what else to do to help them.
6) with it being August, should I keep trying with what I have in the ground and try to get it to cooler temps this fall or just rip it out? It seems so close to producing fruit that I'm afraid to give up on it.
7) what should I be doing now for the fall? planting? Adding soil is a definite but want to wait until I completely done with current garden.

thanks in advance for your help and advice!!

I canned roughly 16 lbs of tomatoes on Sunday. They were all unripe, green fruit that got knocked down by the cold. After processing I netted 16.5 pints of pickled green tomatoes. I've used this recipe several times now and I really like the result. If you've got a lot of unripe tomatoes and a freeze is coming this is a good solution.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/sweet-and-tangy-green-tomato-pickles-3059160

I switched to the mittleider gardening method this year, mostly. Every except the irrigation system. I'm cheap and thought we'd have a wet fall in Bowie county. Turns out I whiffed and am watering most every day. I switch my seed source over to hosstools.com. They sell among other thing improved, improved seeds. I'll bet my production increased 5x, possibly 10x this past summer. And my winter garden is ridiculous. It took my 48 years to find a major upgrade in gardening techniques but I did.

https://texags.com/forums/12/topics/3170942

Someone here might have some info to help this Ag.

This thread gave me the motivation to start a garden back in March 2020. I built (4) 4'x8' gardens. I got a slow start to the season. The Texas heat and irregular watering got the best of me and I couldn't get anything to grow besides arugula and basil.

I was checking on it multiple times a day until I gave up on my garden until the next season. After several months of not touching a thing, I walk out there and have a big patch of perfect lettuce heads.

Guess it's like BBQ. Quit messing with it and just let it do it's thing.

A few days ago I received a thick catalog from Baker Creek Heirlooms Seeds, which excites me about this season. I'm going to get a head start and get my automatic drip system operational.

I need some shade. Anybody have advice? I'm looking at buying these: https://www.gardeners.com/buy/shade-kit-4-x-8/8598156.html?utm_campaign=PLA&utm_medium=googleshopping&utm_source=google&SC=XNET0146&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9eHU_MuV7gIVj8DACh3sswvVEAQYASABEgKuXvD_BwE

I would fix the watering and possibly start your plants earlier in the spring and skip the shade. Plants that don't like the heat are going to stop producing when it gets over 90 and there is not much you can do about it.