I used more fertilizer recently and now tomatoes are getting blossom end rot. Web says the nitrogen in the fertilizer might be binding up the calcium. So I just stuck some calcium pills in the soil. Doubt it will help. Other ideas?
Use bone meal to add calcium to the soil. Since it’s already partially decomposed it’ll be more effective than calcium tablets–which don’t always dissolve well in soil.
The other big culprit in blossom end rot is water. Overwatering or uneven watering ( a cycle of heavy watering followed by periods with no water) both cause blossom end rot. I usually get blossom end rot after we’ve had several days of late afternoon thunderstorms that dump lot of water on the garden.
thanks @WayOutWestMom
While I was outside picking tomatoes yesterday I noticed that the prickly pear (which is a landscape plant hereabouts) was covered with ripe fruit. I’ve ignored the plant and its fruit for year & years, but since I’m planning on making tomato sauce and will be chained to the stove this afternoon anyway…I thought: why not?
Harvested about 15-16 large pears, peeled, pureed and strained them. Will be making prickly pear syrup (accented w/ some ancho or chipotle chile) and freezing juice/pulp for later. Prickly pear juice makes great margaritas.
^^^Very cool!!!
I love jelly made with prickly pear. I tried to pick a few one year when I was in AZ in August. Hah! I vowed to come back with thick BBQ gloves and a long set of tongs if I ever attempt that again.
Temperatures dropped from the 80s to the 40s over the weekend. Since the high Monday afternoon was only 41 at my house, I picked all my tomatoes --green and ripe–yesterday. No frost last night, but we had freezing rain & sleet this afternoon.
I have the lettuce, brussel sprouts and cauliflower covered with heavy plastic. Hope they survived.
Sooo… I have big bowl full of green tomatoes. Any suggestions? They’re too small to make fried green tomatoes.
I cleaned out my garden this past weekend too except zinnias which are still blooming profusely. I picked some small regular tomatoes and probably 200 green sugar sweet little guys. I put mine in a brown paper bag in my kitchen - hoping they will ripen over time (a week or so?) in there.
I’ve had luck before with having green ones ripen in a brown paper bag.
Got 14 winter melons with average size of 10 pounds, we ate half of them already. DH destroyed part of my pepper plants when he mowed the grass, and I discovered that they were hot already. This is the variety that got hot later in the cycle.
I am a gambler. I didn’t pick the peppers and there are also 5 winter melons on the vine. It is supposed to be 34 tonight. Let it be and hope for the best!
I am cleaning up my garden beds. Still have peppers growing and I will wait a bit on cleaning beds.It was 41 degrees the other night!
My container potatoes have been productive this year. (I think I previously mentioned these were from last year’s leftovers that sprouted over winter. Prior yields were hardly bigger than a golf ball.) I had seriously upped the ratio of compost (lobster compost.) One bag is still a lush green plant, despite cold nights. Pretty neat. Little peppers still abundant, as are the tiny eggplants. What Iloved was the 8 Ball zucchini, which died after two were produced. That’s on the list for next year.
I’ve had to use bird netting against squirrels, some years. They seem to get the message. I’ve made either a salsa (LF recipe, off the top of my head) or ust a coulis, for pasta. I jar it as is and can freeze it. Idid make the roasted sauce last year, but roasting the small ones didn;t leave much “meat,” after discarding the skins.
Not real cold here, but changing. I’m going to try some sprouting potatoes over winter and plant some lettuce plugs and arugula seed soon.
Satsumas are ripening too, yum!
@SincererLove - what is a winter melon?
“@SincererLove - what is a winter melon?”
Ditto. I suppose we can google it, but I’d love to hear from the source! 
I just recently heard of satsumas for the first time - what do they taste like or what is their texture?
I’m also sadly starting to clear out some of my annuals each week. Ugh. Tossed the hanging baskets last night. The geraniums are still looking good as well as some other varieties but their day is coming as well…they will usually last until after Halloween.
I have two quite large ferns on my patio in tall planters. They have been magnificent and really make a statement. They also still look really good and healthy. Do you think there is any chance one of them would survive inside?? I don’t think I can find a spot for two of them but thought I might try one. We have an all season sunroom that gets warm during the day if it’s sunny and stays cool at night - sort of mimicking outside. What do you think?
I have brought ferns inside and I can tell you that they are very messy. I always feel bad tossing them but I hate the mess.
Satsumas are a kind of tangerine. Most of them are seedless. I have one tree that is older, where they have seeds and I juice them all. They are generally bigger than clementines, and also easy to peel, but just have a different flavor. I’ve never had them side by side so it’s hard to explain the flavor difference. They also ripen earlier.
There’s just little or no commercial market in the US so they tend to be all eaten locally. It’s different in Europe, with satsumas from Spain being shipped all around.
ETA - your ferns should survive but might be the kind that go dormant in the winter. Do you know the variety?
My brother was raving about the satsumas he got from his food co-op in Brooklyn. Learn something new everyday!
Messy ferns? Hmm…that might be a dealbreaker… I don’t know the variety - they don’t make much of a mess outside but maybe I just don’t notice it like I would inside.
Briefly resurrecting this thread to day, while I was prepping my raised beds for spring planting, I pulled out all the carrots I planted last spring. (I had pulled about 1/3 of the crop last fall, but left the rest to overwinter because I can only use so many carrots at any given time.)
I got about 15 lbs of carrots! Yikes!
Now I have to decide what to do with them all.
And yes, I am definitely going to plant carrots again this year.
Visiting family out of country now. I learned that they plant in April when it is still cold outside and cover the seedlings in plastic. Have any of you started planting seedlings? I plan to plant when I get back at home, but may do it indoors as before.
@WayOutWestMom , good to know! What are you doing with 15lbs of carrots?
I just planted beets, celery, fennel, tomatoes, kale, bok choi, carrots, brocolli and bell peppers.
I still have a couple of stalks of kale which is about two yers old, I just strip the leaves from it as I need it.
Lemons are ripening - and very juicy! Pomegranate tree is budding.