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Post by binnylou on Sept 7, 2020 13:10:58 GMT -5
Some years are different. Some years stay the same. A few of the things I've noticed are:
I had not one tomato this season that had Blossom End Rot. I usually get some with the first flush of fruit. If I have BER, it's usually on a Roma or San Marzano. I planted neither of those varieties, but I did plant Andiamo, which is a San Marzano type of tomato.
Our big old Burr Oak trees did not produce acorns this year. Usually, there are so many acorns dropped on the gravel driveway, walking is difficult without slipping and sliding. The turkey and the deer are going to miss the acorns. The hickory trees are putting out a good crop of nuts, though.
Our old walnut tree that was a good sized tree when we moved here in 1970 did not produce walnuts. This tree does not produce good tasting walnuts, so it's only a problem for the squirrels. Hubby is not missing picking up bucketfuls of walnuts.
Are you noticing things out of the norm?
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weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
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Post by weedkicker on Sept 7, 2020 15:23:37 GMT -5
I mentioned this in a previous thread, but we aren't seeing very many insects. Bees and butterflies are normal, but there are no grasshoppers, house flies, lady bugs, lacewings, aphids, ground beetles, and especially no moths. It's very strange.
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Post by tom 🕊 on Sept 7, 2020 15:37:18 GMT -5
Me too, weedkicker. Fewer insects, more disease. It has been the year for dogwoods to fall from the dogwood blight. So far, four down. Two dead dogwoods I used as support for edible gourds, and that worked well.
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Post by breezygardener on Sept 7, 2020 17:51:27 GMT -5
Weeks of intense heat & nearly daily heavy thunderstorms really wreaked havoc with the deck garden this year.
Potatoes died of blight & then suddenly resprouted a few weeks ago & are about to bloom. Very few tomatoes that didn't split &/or have some kind of rot & eggplants were small & less numerous (usually I'm swimming in them). Only real standouts were early lettuces, cucumbers (before the groundhog family found them), the okra (which I've been drowning in), the hot peppers (drowning in them as well), & all the herbs.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Sept 7, 2020 18:35:03 GMT -5
Some wildflowers were spectacular - about 70+ trillium blossoms. The ostrich ferns expanded their bed and literally doubled the area they inhabit. But others, such as the bellflowers which grew about 2' tall last year only reached about 6" this year. Grapevines moved from the garden to the front of the house, and are still growing prolifically. Mullein didn't do well at all. Goldenrod moved about 35-40 feet up into the former rose bed, and around to the front of the house. They're still lovely, but there aren't as many as in past years. What's puzzling is that the prevailing winds are NW, sometimes SW, and rarely NE or SE. Yet the goldenrod and grapevines that relocated were farther to the E and moved almost directly West, around the garage and part of the house. What I think was more noticeable though was the lack of birds, until the cool weather arrived this week. The yard was so quiet; I thought perhaps the birds had moved elsewhere. Now I think it might have been the heat. I guess they get hot too. The black squirrels were busy all summer long. I hope they didn't transplant bulbs; I prefer to have them where they were planted, not where the squirrels want them. binnylou , have your acorns and walnuts not produced in other years? I wonder what the squirrels will collect to provide food over the winter. weedkicker and tom 🕊 , same here as to insects. There were some different ones that decided to explore the house, but I dispatched them too quickly to worry about what they were - some kind of beetle if I remember correctly. tom 🕊 , were your dogwoods ailing before this year, or did they suddenly become ill during the heat wave? breezygardener , sounds like the unaffected crops were the early starters, before the heat waves became regular visitors.
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Post by pondgardener on Sept 7, 2020 18:46:36 GMT -5
Regarding insects...my wife and I have been enjoying a few ears of corn each evening over the last week from our small patch and the ears are perfect...not a single worm or bug at all. It would seem like I sprayed some insecticide but I did nothing as usual...and no cucumber or bean beetles either.
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Post by Wheelgarden on Sept 7, 2020 18:54:43 GMT -5
Fewer of the usual pests like hornworms, flea beetles and squash bugs, but an invasion of striped army worms. Strange indeed. Lots more hummingbirds and bats. Odd season, it is.
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Post by desertwoman on Sept 7, 2020 19:02:28 GMT -5
Less insects than usual , but they were still around. A skunk family have been regular visitors in the yard Now that you mention it, binny, I had no BER either. The ponderosa pines in our yard produce way more than usual pine cones. The heat was extreme and long running- in the 90s from June to now (usually we get about 10-14 days in late June- to early July) On top of all the heat, it is extreme droughty this year. And now we are predicted to have our first snow on Tuesday night into Wednesday AM with a huge 40 degree drop in temps.
2020 has been one weird year
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Post by tom 🕊 on Sept 7, 2020 19:13:30 GMT -5
were your dogwoods ailing before this year, or did they suddenly become ill during the heat wave? Yes, they were infected before this year. They have been dying for decades. It's a loss of the State Flower.
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Post by binnylou on Sept 7, 2020 19:52:48 GMT -5
Fewer of the usual pests like hornworms I found one hornworm and he was quite small. If there were others, they were hiding.
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Post by datgirl on Sept 7, 2020 20:22:54 GMT -5
I had no volunteer tomato plants this year which is weird. I usually have quite a few. leave one and pull the rest. It was pretty dry here, so the mosquito's were bad but not the usual horrible and I only have found one tomato horn worm so far too.
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Post by Mumsey on Sept 8, 2020 3:13:15 GMT -5
Eggplant struggled here, slow to grow if at all. 2 plants were removed early on. Some ornamental grasses are just now blooming when they should have a month ago. Japanese Beetles are fewer this year and they aren't being attracted to yellow/white flowers like last year, but they are liking marigolds. Perennial Obedience plant just now blooming, a month late. Onions struggled to get growing. Aphids just showed up the other day, gazillions of them on the pole beans and tomatoes. They are not affecting the peppers right next to the beans. I'm not going to worry about them this late in the game. White butterflies seem late for the season (the cabbage worm culprit). I have watered more this year than I ever have! Cucumbers are prolific, never did see a cucumber beetle. Last year they killed the cukes. Squash bugs, saw a few and some leaves with eggs. Promptly destroyed those. Never saw another one.
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Post by Mumsey on Sept 8, 2020 3:16:04 GMT -5
binnylou, Our experience with walnut trees is that they do not produce an abundance of nuts every year. I always liked the lean years!
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Post by James on Sept 10, 2020 9:58:11 GMT -5
Seems like the season is warmer than usual. Normally we would expect to get a killing frost the first of September. Yet here it is the tenth and my tomato still producing fruit. WX forecast is for warmer temps for the next week.
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Post by James on Sept 16, 2020 11:22:43 GMT -5
Yet here it is the sixteenth and my tomato still producing fruit.
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