Let me start by saying I love the comments. I proves people are actually reading what I babble about. Sure the stats tell me I get around 200 hits a day, but how "real" is that?
After work I went for a much needed hair cut and then out to dinner with the family. When I got home I put the kids down and went out to the garden. I hadn't been out there in two days so sure enough the tomatoes were not quite bone dry, but not full like I like it. Give those babies as much water as they want! I ended up watering just about everything a bit, and then it started to rain so I let nature take over. Mostly I wanted to get the SWCs watered because one of the two at least is a closed system so rain doesn't help.
Speaking of my SWCs, I was surprised to find all three of my cantaloupe plants have gotten their first true leaf. Not bad considering it's been cloudy and in the mid 60s for a few days.
While I was out there I decided to try to help along the cucumber growth by hand polinating. I was speaking at work today to one of my garden buddies and she mentioned that she hand polinates her zuchinis so I decided it couldn't hurt with cukes. So I searched and searched and found one male flower in all 6 of my plants in bed #3 and tickled the female flowers with it. Not sure if I did it right. Only time will tell.
While I was snapping the pictures of my cantaloupe, I watered the potato bins and my apple tree. Here are some dark shots of my two potato bins. Both have bounced back decently from the attack of the raccoons.
And
Boy I wish they'd hurry up and die already, hehe.
I'll end with a question... How can you tell if a bush bean is ready to harvest? Here is one of the bigger ones. It's still pencil thickness but it's long. Here's a good shot of it.
Night! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I admired your effeciency- a job, two children, a garden, and maintaining a blog. Would you tell me how to polinate your zuchinis? I've two pumpkin plants, there are tons of male flowers, but only one female flower. I
ReplyDeleteneed to polinate the flowers myself.
Chi
Sure I'll tell what I did. Nothing special. And acually I hand polinated cucumbers not zuchinis, but my guess is it's similar.
ReplyDeleteI found a male flower (one without a fruit pod behind it) and removed it and brushed it into and around the female flowers.I tried to get inside all of them but some were closed. I figured it couldn't hurt to try those too. Lastly I hope you can use a different variety to polinats. I couldn't find but one male.
Frankly for a male, he sure looked like a very cut flower. My son loves yellow hehe.
Correct me if I'm wrong please.
Yes, when to harvest the beans? Harvesting too early still yields a tender, yummy, sweet bean. Too late and it gets tough. But if you're too early, you're eating a pod that could have been bigger and just as tasty. Experience plays a part in this, you learn by trial and error. If you see large swellings where the beans are forming, then it's likely late. Still, you'll have to do your own experimentation.
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