@DrGoogle , how many artichokes does one plant produce in a summer??? A couple? More than a couple??
I had 2-4 per plants but they were not huge. But I didn’t fertilized or anything. My soil is not the best either. I don’t know how some plants can produce huge ones. Mine is bigger than a tennis ball but smaller than a baseball. I think more water might make them grow larger.
I removed my last artichoke plant. It didn’t seem to go anywhere. It’s too hot here, can’t do much in the morning. But I did plant 2 cucumber plants.
I’m going to grow small pumpkin because I have seeds from previous year. I will put them on the bank where it can sprawl.
I went out and picked a zucchini and 3 fantastic beets, the biggest one is the size of large tomato. I think they are not going to be tough the way they grew, fast. I’m going to have them for lunch. Yeah tasty beets. I haven’t had them for a while.
No signs of height progress with my beets, maybe I’ll go check around in the soil. Some say they’re cooler weather crops, so I wonder what’s behind your success in CA, DrG- is it moderate where you are?
I planted them near the shade area. Loaming soil also. The recent rain helped a lot because couple weeks ago they were not too big.
I have three really red tomatoes (don’t know the variety) and one ripe orange tomato one another plant. Should I pick them tomorrow before they start to rot?
I just pick them when they turn slightly pink. I have a basket full of deep red tomatoes from the slightly pink that I’ve picked. I gave some to my daughter. I can’t eat them all.
So you pick them and then let them ripen?
Yes inside. If I leave them outside some animals will eat them. I’m in California, it’s too hot and they are ripen very fast.
Ahh, gotcha.
Mine are in pots on my deck but the last time a deer was on it there wasn’t anything for the deer to eat on them - so it ate half of a huge spider plant I was babysitting for a neighbor. Think I’ll pick them tomorrow and use in a salad. The local tomatoes are finally showing up at my farm stand and they are so inexpensive it’s probably cheaper for me to buy them then grow them myself.
In the midwest it definitely works to pick a not-all-the-way-ripe tomato and let it ripen inside on a windowsill or something. Of course, flavor wise probably better to stay on the vine, but if you think it’s going to rot (I didn’t understand why it would rot tomorrow??), then I’d pick it!
I always pick them early. Some birds are attracted to the color red. They’ll ripen inside even without sun.
worked in the yard all day , just came in!
Fixed all the supports for the peppers & tomatoes.
Moved some cement statuary & birdbaths, so they arent hidden by plants.
Dug up some alchemilla, hosta and bearded iris.
Pruned some nootka roses & raspberries.
Redid the river rock edging on the paths, and ripped out the rattier looking Australian violets.
Picked up all the broken branches and twigs from the neighbors curly willow, and swept up the acorns from the other neighbors oak trees.
Hauled part of the pile of dead furniture and garbage bags from the patio to the driveway.
H was letting it accumulate till he has more of a load, but I have someone who can combine it with another load.
Plus I washed clothes!
Oh but do my feet hurt & I even wore my boots & orthotics!
Does anyone know when delphiums start dying for the season? One of my delphiniums are getting droopy and turning yellow already in zone 6. I wonder if that means it won’t come up next year.
"(I didn’t understand why it would rot tomorrow??), then I’d pick it! "
They have been fully ripe on the vine for several days now, but some are just staring to ripen… Since there are only 3 small ones which are fully ripe I’d like to wait until all of them (about six) are ripe so there would be enough tomatoes for a decent sized salad.
Haha, go ahead and pick them. They do little good being “fully ripe on the vine.” And low volume home “farming” often means you only get what you get. Last night, I had one green bean. Enjoy.
Igloo, you are lucky to have delphinium. I don’t recall any delphinium come back up again here, if they do, the snails will have first dip.
I have done intensive farming in the past, I sprouted too many tomato seedlings and ended up with a 80-100 plants so I packed them in a row and never ran out of tomato. This year I have about 5 good productive plants at most.
Plus picking the fruits encourages more growth in the plant. Some people are very quick to pick the first one or two. Otherwise, a plant can think it’s done.