Crops and Gardens in Parts of the Southeast

[Billyd]

Today, I harvested the sweetcorn from my garden. I had less than 1/6th the normal harvest. I normally have enough for six families (besides my own). I really don't have enough for my own. I live in the panhandle of Florida, but this is typical for Southeast Alabama, and Southwest Georgia. Vegetables that are normally ready to harvest are just being planted. Crops are over a month late. I just planted my vegetables (normally I do this in late March and early April). Most of my fruit trees did not set fruit this year. I do have a good crop of blueberries, praise God, but they are a month late. I know very little about areas other than mine, but I pray that they are having a better season than we are.

If we have a normal summer, the heat will force more irrigation and more pesticide use. This increases the cost of production. Even though crops will bring a higher market price, the lower yields and higher cost of production will result in little benefit for the farmer.

We will survive because God blessed us with a bumper season the last two years, but there are many families that are dependent on each year's harvest. With scarcity, comes higher prices. Please be generous in your support your local food pantries. The need is much greater than ever. Ours has had an increase of more than 80%.

Please keep this in your prayers.

 

[iamsoandso]

my corn this year grew very tall 7-10 foot I panted in late march(east Texas,dent corn),it was about 6-7 foot tall,leggy as if it was reaching for the sun. the ears no are about the size of a mark-o-lot,I used tassels to pollinate them but there not forming. everything in my garden(1 acre) is very light pale green as if nitrogen is incorrect. problem is the field where the corn is was planted in purple hulls last year(should fix nitrogen) and then 13,13,13, added before planting.

I noticed that all of the plants(tomatoes,squash,butter peas,corn,ect.) were growing fine in the early spring. Each time it rained they would jump in growth,then about 2 weeks ago it rained and a couple of days later everything began to turn yellow,,the tomatoes stopped blooming and died from the bottom up. The squash plants all turned a very light green and have not set fruit again. The corn got so leggy(skinny,tall) the stalks are snapping in half,and are light green leaves. This same pattern is in everything in my garden.

This is what I think,the ph,,soil ect. was correct at first,,something that is being sprayed on crops to the west of me(roundup,,commercial fertilizers ect.,pollution?) are precipitating up into the clouds and being carried east over other gardens and when it rains it soaks into the soil and is a mixture of (what was in the soil and what was added by the rain),,,

Geographically you are east of east Texas,the last three rounds of rain came across the u.s. from the Rockies across the plains(gathering moister) then it rained on us,,then moved east toward you in the panhandle,Georgia,Alabama ect.(notice that the first 2 rains did not do this,the crops west of us were to small to spray),,,then as the crops west of us grew to 1/2 grown it became time to spray all the commercial crops. the commercial crops(mostly g.m.o.) are then modified to grow in pesticides,herbicides ect. so the rain picked up these things and rained them on our crops.,,,,

 

[Billyd]

We planted our garden in March. We had 20 inches of rain on it before it cracked the ground. The corn did come up, but the rest of it didn't. During the next 4 weeks we averaged 6 inches per week, and fertilizer leached away from it. After adding more fertilizer, we had 4 weeks of no rain. Just plain crazy here. We were laughing about the ear worms this morning. Even they were about half sized.

I pray that you have a better remainder of the season.

 

[p_rehbein]

We had so much rain.........and a Winter that would not DIE! that I couldn't even till my garden until the last week of April.....

I'm starting to harvest squash, and have small tomatoes now............

But now we are getting a lot of rain......well.......the last 8 days......not today......hopefully we will go into a more normal summer growing pattern...........otherwise I may lose my garden to root rot because of all the rain......

In June alone......we are over 2 inches above normal rainfall for the month......

 

[iamsoandso]

We planted our garden in March. We had 20 inches of rain on it before it cracked the ground. The corn did come up, but the rest of it didn't. During the next 4 weeks we averaged 6 inches per week, and fertilizer leached away from it. After adding more fertilizer, we had 4 weeks of no rain. Just plain crazy here. We were laughing about the ear worms this morning. Even they were about half sized.

I pray that you have a better remainder of the season.

thank you,my tomatoes are determinate so as soon as they are a little bigger I'll pick them green(or the squirrels will!,lol) the corn three years ago the squirrels would cut the stalks off at the ground and take the whole stalk up the trees and eat(so I had cornstalks hanging all in my trees,lol),,Ill pull up the tomatoes in a week or so and plant something else,and the corn I think i'll feed to the chickens and go back with okra since they like the heat.

 

[iamsoandso]

We had so much rain.........and a Winter that would not DIE! that I couldn't even till my garden until the last week of April.....

I'm starting to harvest squash, and have small tomatoes now............

But now we are getting a lot of rain......well.......the last 8 days......not today......hopefully we will go into a more normal summer growing pattern...........otherwise I may lose my garden to root rot because of all the rain......

In June alone......we are over 2 inches above normal rainfall for the month......

yep my squash(crookneck,zucchini) does real well if I plant it in a starter tray and set them out as quick as I can(I use 5gal.buckets) but if I don't do it very early spring by the end of June our dry season begins and the powdery mildew will kill them. Ive tried baking soda,powdered milk,compost tea ect.(I try not to use chemicals) but this year the leaves all just turned yellow and they stopped producing(7-10 days ago). I use the d.e.earth for vine boars so I suspect root rot also in mine.

my watermelons are growing well this year. I tried something new,I read on several college web pages that they took the adult plants and removed the soil with brushes(like archeologist) and followed melon tap roots (here's one I cant find the others) Root Development of Vegetable Crops: Chapter XXXI ,,,,I had no Idea that their root systems were as big as the actual plant is above the ground!,,

I always get a melon from the store and cut it open and think "water melons didnt taste this way when I was young",,so I've planted every type of seed I could find trying to grow one that tasted right. This year I planted sugar baby's,black diamond,Charleston grey and jubilee ,,,some I started in biodegradable pots,others in tires. the ones I transplanted (pouted) and are only about 7 inches tall/wide(they didn't like transplant).

The others I took a post hole digger and dug as far down as I could go(for the tap root to go into) and filled it with composted manure/compost from pile/dirt from my worm bin and set the tire over the hole and used the same combination of soil to fill the tire and started the melons from seed(to avoid trans.shock) "they grew three times as fast as the ones started in peat pots and transplanted". I put them in tires and set bricks around them so I could water them while the plant is growing and it forms the melons(they like water then),,but when they have good size melons I set plywood over the tire on the bricks if it's going to rain so the water don't water down the flavor of the melon.(only to control h20,I take it off so it gets sun the rest of the time),,,

I love jalapeno and other peppers (but not hot like gasoline),,I like to can my own so I can make them very mild so I can taste the pepper. I use the sweet pepper type recipes,I found it is the opposite of making them hot,that is peppers get hotter if bugs bite the plant(natural defense) so any injury will make them put off the chemical that makes them hotter. Lack of Water while the plant grows and lack of water when the peppers form makes them hotter,so I never let them starve for water and when the peppers form I water them every day,twice a day in the heat and they pull up so much water into the peppers it waters down the heat(so there very mild).

The more I tried this the more I tried it on other vegetables. Tomatoes I noticed have a loud tomato flavor if starved for water when they are turning red,,weak flavor if given water when the fruit is ripening. cantaloupes(I like midget melons)you probably do too if your up north(short growing season) but they responded to the water/tap root things the same way in controlling the flavor.

Water though is a tricky thing too much and you get root rot,not enough and well. In east Texas water is a big problem,it's sandy,hills,red clay ect. What I did was take my tiller(mantis) and plowed semicircle rows(like a 1/4 compass shape) and then went between the rows and rowed up a (Lister-dam) http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FJXosFTV_Rw/UAgnT6iqXkI/AAAAAAAAAF0/zw4zCsGyjio/s1600/129.JPG (mine are not as large as the picture) but in between the rows I take and row up a row that connects between the rows to hold water where i need it and leave it open to let the water go where i don't. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TfBM0QpOqy4/UAgnwUM1_aI/AAAAAAAAAF8/LSnLsrmSjG0/s1600/Flag+Photos+032.JPG this is the same field dry(not mine) hears another http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Ma_k_8dE6II/S_ap-idcZKI/AAAAAAAABa0/_od7U6ZIRnc/s1600/5.15+garden+(2).JPG (but he only has the "listers" in one row (the row on the far right) I put mine about 7 feet apart across the rows that get dry fast,and turn the rows so the water will drain off the places in my garden that flood.