Gardening In LA
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Garden Coaching
    • Speaking
    • Photography
    • Writing >
      • List of Articles
  • Blog
  • News
  • Monthly Tips
    • January
    • February
    • March
    • April
    • May
    • June
    • July
    • August
    • September
    • October
    • November
    • December
  • Events
    • Submit Your Garden Events
    • Botanical Gardens' and Other Organizations' Garden Events
  • Jobs
  • Web Links
  • Newsletter

Suddenly Summer

6/7/2018

5 Comments

 
Picture
Lettuce bolting - sending up stalks with blossoms that'll become seeds.
Picture
Cucumber seeds sown into gaps from first sowing - they'll catch up within 2 weeks.
Picture
Squash seeds sown at outside of fruit tree watering berm to benefit from water and then shade the area for lessened evaporation.
Picture
Celebrity tomato fruit set. No blossom-end rot here!
Picture
Blossom-end rot!
Picture
Beautiful mini rose.
Picture
Maranta seed pods.
Picture
Double Delight rose bloom flush.
Picture
Pepper plant planted a year ago: this year's foliage, bloom, and fruit.
Picture
Fortnight lily blooms.
Picture
Artichoke bloom.
Picture
Tomatoes supported by double-decker cages and watered at base of plants and also in buried 5-gallon buckets. Note upright green stakes at corners of each cage and anchored with tie at top of upper cage and also horizontally between all cages.
Picture
Dancy tangerines. Harvest citrus by shaking the branch - if fruits fall, they're ripe; if they don't fall, they need more time to ripen.
​     Is your lettuce, spinach, parsley and cilantro bolting – sending up those tall stalks and flowering?  They’re reacting to the suddenly hot weather, proceeding with their reproductive cycle by going to seed.  This is just one result of our air temperatures suddenly rising 15-20 degrees hotter after a mild spring that went on very comfortably for months and months – even more so since we never really got any cold weather over our winter.
 
     Here’re some other things you may observe in your garden resulting from this instant Summer.
 
Seeds Germinate Quickly
     Cucumber, squash, corn, melons and other warm-season-loving vegetable seeds you’ve just sown seem to literally pop out of the soil within a couple of days – and catch up quickly to the seedlings from the seeds that you’d sown a couple of weeks ago. 
     This is why I no longer hurry earlier in the coolness to get my summer-loving crops to germinate and grow.  I know that they’ll come up and thrive more readily if I just wait a couple of weeks until the soil warms up.
     This is also the reason that I no longer bother purchasing seedlings of these plants available commercially – they’ve been forced to sprout in a greenhouse and pumped up with fertilizer so they can be sold at nurseries, but then they have a supremely difficult time adapting to the very different environmental conditions in your garden – in most cases barely surviving. 
     Instead, I sow two or three seeds in each hole, two inches apart, in well-amended soil, and water them in well.  Then, if there are gaps in germination, I just put in a couple more seeds into each hole, and water them in, and these usually catch up with the original seedlings within 2 weeks.  And, because they’ve germinated and grown up in my garden soil and environment, they’re extremely healthy and thriving.
 
Check for Tomato End Rot
     Tomato fruits that set just after a sudden change in air temperatures may develop tomato end rot because the plants have been subjected to drought.  During our long cool Spring – up until last week – plants have been growing nicely, and we haven’t been paying much attention to how frequently we’ve been watering because the plants looked fine. 
     But, with this sudden increase of 15-20 degrees air temperature for days on end, we may have still felt comfortable, but the plants may be pulling more moisture from the soil than we’ve been providing by watering. 
     Which means that the extremely last spot on the plant – the blossom end of the fruits – may be starting to dry out since not enough moisture is able to make its way that far away from the roots.  This results in that brownish-gray scab.
     There’s nothing wrong with that scabby-looking thing – it’s not diseased or anything.  If the fruit is already a good size, you can just let the fruit continue to ripen, harvest it, and cut off the scab before eating it.  Or – if the fruit is still small – just pluck it off and toss it into the compost pile. 
     And then change your watering pattern!
 
Change Your Watering Pattern
     This is your timing cue to shift your watering pattern to “Summer” instead of “Spring” – more frequently, and deeply enough so the plants’ entire root systems are sufficiently supplied each time.
     How frequently and how deeply?  This depends on the type of plant, your soil type, and the amount of organic matter that you’ve incorporated into the soil.
 
Type of Plants and Their Root System
     Most vegetable plants’ root systems are in the top 6-18 inches of soil.
     More shallow plants’ roots that reach down about only one foot are beets, bok choy, carrots, garlic, lettuce, onions, radishes, spinach, strawberries, swiss chard.
     Deeper plants’ roots that reach down another foot are beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplant, peas, peppers, squash.
     Some roots can reach even further down - to 3 feet - are blackberries, blueberries, potatoes, tomatoes.
     Which means that every time you irrigate, the water must reach down that deeply to keep those roots hydrated, absorbing nutrients, and developing strongly.
 
Your Soil Type
     Sandy soil, with large chunks of rock and large pore spaces between them, will drain water very quickly, leaving root systems dry.
     Silty loam soil, with smaller pieces of mineral matter and equal-sized pore spaces, will hold water for enough time so plant roots can remain moist enough to pick up nutrients, but then the soil drains so roots can breathe.
     Clay soil, with tiny pieces of mineral matter and even tinier pore spaces between them, takes in water slowly because the pore spaces are so small – and easily runs off instead of entering the soil – and then holds onto to the water for a long time, and drains very slowly.
 
Amount of Organic Matter in the Soil
     Organic matter incorporated into each of these types of soil will benefit all of them because it provides a “wrung-out sponge” lodged between soil pieces and pore spaces to help absorb the water in the first place and then keep the moisture always available to the roots.  It’s the magic enabler in all soils!
 
5 Comments
Cara
6/8/2018 10:39:38 am

Thank you for another great post, Yvonne! I especially like your comments about how cuke, squash and melon seeds catch up quickly to their older cousins when planted in this much warmer weather. Great tip!
Happy Growing!
Cara in Pasadena

Reply
Yvonne Savio link
6/25/2018 11:11:01 am

Hi, Cara --
Yes, repeat seeding in the gaps enables a full trellis of foliage and then fruit. And, removes the worry that you "missed" the "right" time to sow since it can be an ongoing process! Anything to remove the "have to do it NOW' immediacy as the only option!

Reply
Hill Climb Racing 2: a testament to physics-based racing games where you do not just race link
7/19/2022 05:05:34 pm

The best television program is this one. It makes me think of enduring real love. I was sobbing uncontrollably as I watched this episode when they both broke up. Many times in their lives brought tears to my eyes. Just letting you know that I love this drama.

Reply
watch how to play Zooba on PC link
7/19/2022 05:18:23 pm

Watching this drama is like taking a sneak peak into the many stages of these characters' lives. The cinematography is stunning and done quite well. Each scene's lighting, color scheme, and setting were chosen with great care.

Reply
Arizona Independent Girl link
11/20/2022 05:16:31 am

Thaank you

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© 2015 Yvonne Savio. All Rights Reserved.                                                                                                                                                         Web Design by StudioMAH.