Fall Cucumbers in Queen Creek

The Cukes are going to town!

I have never really had any success with cucumbers in the fall in Arizona but maybe the new found love of the soaker hose is a game changer.  I really was getting home and getting the leaves wet while it was sunny, which is a no no, even though I knew better.  Who wants to get up before the sun and go out and water the garden in the dark before you have to go to work all day?  I would do it when I got home and was sweaty from being outside all day and water everything and then hop in the pool dry off and go inside to the sweet air conditioning where I would spend the rest of my evening.  Nothing was going to get me back outside until time to go to work the next day!  You really aren't supposed to water your garden in the evening either if you plan on getting the leaves wet.  The warm Arizona nights and wet leaves just beg for fungus to appear.

So I had seen some grey beetles around the watermelon vines as I was pulling them out but paid very little attention to them.  I was killing the vines so who cares about the bugs.  Never had two thoughts about them.

The great balance of life being what it is, I noticed a few smaller runts of the cucumber rows were wilting and dying.  I have never had these and should have had bells and whistles go off in my head when I saw them.  I had diagnosed them as the problem a million times at the nursery but never experienced their destruction first hand.

Let me introduce you to my new nemeses...

Squash beetles.  Bastards.

I first went with a soapy water spray and carefully sprayed the cucumber plants while billions of whiteflies swarmed all around me, they appear to be doing no damage, and let it rest for a while.  Went back to check and they just seemed cleaner.  I have never had luck with the soapy water game so I moved on to Carbaryl (Sevin) which did nothing for either bug.  I had hoped at least it would do a little something to the whiteflies, even though deep down I knew nothing really will get rid of them except the cooler temps of Fall.  I don't worry as much about them anyways since they usually don't really kill a healthy plant, they are just annoying.  The evil beetles from Beelzebub however should have shown some sort of distress from the Sevin, but nothing so I tried again being very careful to spray under the leaves this morning to get them where they were hanging out plotting some destructive actions I'm sure.  I went back out a couple of hours later only to find them more clever and resilient than before.  They try their best to hide from you when you move the vine around.  They will scurry to the backside of the vine and tuck in their legs so you might miss them!  This was the last straw, I hate doing this but in the kill or lose your veggie crop world we live in I have become a masterful... beetle smasher.

So far this method has been very efficient.  Its a little gross and time consuming but in two days I am down to only seeing one or two each time I go out there.  I'm hoping any new beetles that approach the cucumbers see the limbs, carcasses and carnage and just figure that its just not worth it!

Weeds

The cucumber seeds are up and growing.  I know the warm soil really makes a difference but its crazy how fast they are growing.  Beans are just starting to pop up too.

I guess I should talk about weeds.  Recently having a conversation with my mother about her alyssum and moss roses that have re-seeded themselves everywhere I flashed back to my Biology and Botany roots.  A weed really is just a plant that is not growing where you want one to grow.  Be it a bindweed or pigweed or cucumber or watermelon, if it is not growing in a place that you have specifically planted it....it is a weed.

I think the best way to rid yourself of this weed is to pull it.  If you get it early enough it won't have any seeds that it will spread from.  Unfortunately the "weeds" we fight have seeds that will disperse when they are very young. The portulaca you pull probably won't have any seeds it will spread all over the place, the creeping spurge you pull out however will.  If it has even a few leaves it seems that it will have seeds ready to jump off the parent plant and land wherever you have pulled it.  Even the portulaca you want ( moss rose) and the weed sometimes called a water weed or purslane seems to have different ideas of when to spread the seeds.

Purslane is a "weed" that is a very edible plant but we spend a lot of time pulling it and trying to kill it in our gardens.  It also tends to have viable seeds very early and when we do pull it we just spread it around. It even goes as far as growing from cuttings. You can drop a chunk of this purslane and it will sprout and grow.  It is very hardy.  I really wish a lot of my garden plants were that resilient.

August Planting!

It's almost August! The end is near! YES YES YES  I have ordered my cucumber, bean, carrot and even some tomato seeds.  The best hope for some cukes in the fall is plant the seeds now since they do not enjoy the soil as it cools down. They always do better in warmer soil.  I ordered carrot tape again since it makes it so much easier to plant and you don't have to thin them.

I have been using a soaker hose for the watermelons and have to admit after all my years of turning my nose up at the weird looking leaking little black hoses I am a fan.  It really makes it a lot easier to water when its still sunny outside.  I have noticed the vines seem to do a little better when you make sure you run the boiling water out of the hose before you hook it to the soaker portion.  Everything about them makes sense if I really sort it out in my head, not sure why I have never really used them. The cucumber rows will all have their own line of this genius hose so as they grow and spread out I can simply connect to the line of soaker hose and water right at the root.

The watermelons have been doing great.  They are now even climbing up the old dill stalks and setting fruit.  The pumpkins have failed for the most part.  I am holding on to the theory that there are just some things I can grow and some things I cannot.

Since August is approaching, I am looking forward to the fall of course.  Not yet time to get the cabbages in for sauerkraut or the radishes or beets but it still gives me hope that the end of summer is near in AZ and everything will cool down and I can get back to my garden...

Insects

I am not a fan of just randomly killing insects.  I think you can have a well balanced ecosystem that allows some give and take between the insects and your crop.  After all they were almost directly responsible for pollinating your plants.

These perfect little cuts are just little leaf cutter bees taking their little cut out of your plants and they will fly them home and wrap them up in little tubes and make homes.  You can't spray anything on your plants to stop them, they aren't eating anything so they will never ingest the poison you spray,  they won't kill your plants.  If you are out for perfection in your garden and can't handle a little bit of their "cut" of the production process you will drive yourself crazy trying to stop them when they are doing no damage to your crops (fruit production).

I have had them cut zucchini leaves and some cuke leaves but mostly bougainvillea leaves.  I'm not eating the leaves so if they happen to pollinate something on their way I will save my money and time and let them take whatever they want.  They have never killed a plant I have ever had so they pose no threat to my crops (fruit production).

I guess I am a big fan of the insects that live in my garden.  Ants are not stealing from me, leaf cutter bees are not destroying my plants, praying mantis are the guardians of the realm, lady bug larvae are horrible looking spiked nasties that eat 10x their weight in aphids in a day, lace wings are magical looking little creatures that are waiting to eat whiteflies, aphids, thrips, scale, and spider mites. Why spend all the money killing everything when you can plant some plants to attract the good guys and let them kill all the others?

Plant dill and let it go, the lady bugs will lay eggs in the umbels and when the aphids start going crazy the larvae will show up and pillage the aphids. Once the ladybugs show up it seems everyone else joins in.  If they don't you can usually find the good guys at a good nursery in the spring.  Once you get some ladybugs, mantids etc you will be a harbor for them and they tend to stay.

I guess I like letting nature work with me rather than fighting it the entire time.  It has been around a lot longer than I have and been working just fine without me.

Done for the summer

I guess I posted the title as "Done for Summer" but really I am just celebrating putting away my pickling equipment.  I did make it to 62 quarts, not my best but considering I feared the new Queen Creek virgin earth garden would fail me the first year I am satisfied with its performance!

So for the summer I have my pumpkins and watermelons in with a soaker hose running along both rows, this will help with the summer water bill since the water can run underneath the canopy and directly onto the soil.  Remember to keep the two apart since they are both curcubits like the cukes and can crossbreed and become some combo of the two (pumpmelons? waterkins?)

I'm also really going to add stuff to the soil all summer, moving all compost activity directly to the garden area and till multiple times until the melons cover everything up or burn up in the summer heat and die, I have never had much luck with either two crops but experimentation is a huge aspect of learning so I keep trying.

I have been being asked more about the watering of the fruit trees throughout the hot AZ summer too.  Remember to always water deep!  More water/less often.  Established fruit trees love a deep drink once a week until fall.  Think of it more like irrigating a field, they don't do it as often but when they do they dump a good amount of water into the soil.

Basil is another question I have been getting.  This weed loves our summer and the more you use it the faster it grows.  Do try to keep the flowers cut off and if its in a pot it tends to get root bound and need more frequent watering than if its in the ground somewhere.  As you can see I need to spend some more time with mine and clean it up, been busy pickling!

While we are on the subject of herbs, I have had a lot of spittlebug activity on my Rosemary.  Luckily
they are pretty easy to get rid of.  Its a little bug that gets in there and basically makes a foam around itself that looks like someone spit on your Rosemary plant.  Just hose it off with a good stream of water and it leaves the insect exposed and most of the time ends the problem.

For the last part of this post I will hit on insecticides a bit.  I really try hard to not use them but sometimes they are absolutely needed.  When I do need them I try to start with the weakest and move up the chain if the first one doesn't work. Pyrethrins are made from a chrysanthemum plant and are generally not as hard core but pretty broad spectrum.  If they don't work I would move to a Permethrin which is more of a man made version of the pyrethrins and a little more potent.  From there you can go into the deltamethrin, cypermethrin etc.  There are other organics to use too such as the spinosans (A&B) and for caterpillars I love Bt which is a bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis) and only really harms caterpillars like the ones that get in the cabbages, texas mountain laurels and passion vines.  Carbaryl (Sevin) is a good one for the veggies that isn't horribly toxic too. Just try the version that might not destroy your soil microbes, the bees or any other beneficial organism first.

Success!!

So I have been busy,  I am up to 45 quarts of pickles! I have had a couple days that I put up 10 quarts of pickles each day. Everything started slow here in Queen Creek but ramped up quite quickly.  I fear the 108 degree temps are going to stop most of the production because cucumber pollen usually is not viable in this extreme heat but I find myself with a successful pickle production where I feared nothing would happen.

First things first

8 cups water ( not softened- at least use RO)
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup PICKLING salt

this is my brine, you can add whatever you want to the mix.  I like to add hot peppers, garlic  and a tiny bit of pickling spices and of course...dill!  The dill crop is doing phenomenally!

I have also been canning some dill green beans.  They are really nice to sink into a bloody mary or just grab one out of the jar, need a little more vinegar for those but great use of the dill.

I have planted the pumpkin seeds which have sprouted, and the watermelons have too, not sure how those two crops will do as I am not the best at keeping stuff watered in the summer but will try my best and see how it goes.  I still feel the best way to learn how to grow the stuff you want to grow is try to grow the stuff you want to grow and keep a record of how it went and what you think you could do to make it better.  With the weather getting weird and unpredictable us gardeners are going to have to be flexible and really be ready to change stuff up to get the crops we want. 

Some gardening comments

So, I am in a new garden, with virgin soil basically, and things are actually starting to happen.  I have been fertilizing as much as I can since I know I have very little organic material in there.  I usually advocate the use of compost and organic material but I am also down to the last quart of pickles!

Over the years I have supplied many friends and family members with homemade pickles and have usually canned up to 65 quarts of them, they are so much better than the grocery store mass produced stuff (still not sure how anyone can get that many ingredients into a jar of pickles, but I am puzzled by the bread they make too when I only use 5 ingredients but whatever) and I love giving them out.  Now sitting here in a new garden and even a new microclimate, Queen Creek has baffled me so far, I find myself guarding this one jar left.  Can I do this gardening thing again, build up my soil to a level I need to produce the amount of produce I want? I have more square footage now but do I have the ambition?

I need to make a plan.

I have some friends that have horses....old manure CHECK
I compost....CHECK
I can get some mulch from a landscape material company...CHECK
I can get coffee grounds to attract earthworms....CHECK
I have neighbors that cut their winter rye grass and they will give me their clippings....CHECK
I can get some straw bales at Pet Club and grow some stuff in them until they decompose...CHECK

These are just some of the things I can do to start building up my soil. I put in some corn seeds and will be able to shred them up into my soil to add organic material.  My beets tops and cabbage leaves will get tilled in and add also. 

I just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other just like I have done previously and I know I will get this new garden built up to the level that it will be a self sustaining ecosystem like the previous one.  I know it will be a lot of work but so rewarding in the end.  Nothing worth doing just gets handed to me and I know I appreciate it in the end but need to just face the fact that I need to put in the effort.