Summer Heat and Catching Up

At the tail end of that crushing heat wave a few weeks ago my family packed up the car and drove to Mississippi to visit some friends. Our friends tried to lure us into moving there with calls of “we have two growing seasons!” but the fact that we were sweating the whole time we were there (even with the AC on full blast) made us immune to such temptations. Despite the heat we had a great time, and as a bonus, when we got back to Minnesota 84 degrees felt nice and cool.

I had checked the Fridley weather forecast before we left and it looked like we’d get enough rain that I didn’t even ask anyone to water our gardens. It ended up working out great. I came back to corn that had grown about two feet taller, red ripe tomatoes and tons of sweet banana peppers.

A small handfull of Sweet Million cherry tomatoes

And vine borers. Lots of vine borers. I have spent the last several days slicing my vines open, removing vine borers and covering the vines with dirt. I’m hopeful that the pumpkins and squash will survive and produce fruit.

On some vines  I had to make slices up to two feet long to open up all the damaged area and pull the bugs out. Here’s a 8 inch slice on one of the Connecticut Field Pumpkins. Most of the time I could just make a couple of small incisions near the junction of the leaves and the vines.

Sliced vine from vine borer damage
Here’s the vine covered up with dirt. I covered up the cut portion and several undamaged junctions to try and protect them, and to encourage more root growth. The vine borers cut off the downstream water supply, so encouraging more rooting will hopefully help the plant survive.

Vine borer damage covered up with dirt

Now, my community garden plot may have been getting a little weedy, but not as bad as the plots next to it. But when I went and visited it yesterday I was shocked to find that someone had tilled up most of the green beans and peas! From next to the corn all the way straight forward.

The plot next to me had not been planted before now, so I’m guessing that they did it, but I can’t be sure. Either way, I’m not very happy about it. I’m going to have to plant something fast growing in there and try to still get a crop out of it.

Community Garden -- Someone tilled my plot!

 

Happy gardening!

Michael