Monday, June 7, 2010

Harvest Monday

I am so excited to be back again this week. Thanks again to Daphne's Dandelions' Harvest Day. The holiday last week got in the way. What an exciting week. The growth in the garden is visible by the eye. I look at in the morning and everything is at least an inch taller in the evening.
Tomato fruit are on almost all plants, the bush beans are just about to bloom, the pole beans are leaping and I am sure that my structure will not be big enough. The cucumbers are beginning to climb and I can see some fruit.
I have never considered  weighing my harvest as many other's do but I am beginning to see why one would do so. This is the harvest for the week:

Swiss Chard: two bowls full



Two turnips out of my daughters plot. She loved pulling these out.

   

More radishes and lettuce, one onion to see what was happening. No, not the tomato.















Pinched basil, cilantro tops and chamomile flowers.














The zucchini are getting bigger but the crook neck can't seem to open male and female flowers at the same time so all of the fruit are dropping off. If anyone has thoughts about why this is happening, I would appreciate it.  I would be happy to hand pollinate if they were open at the same time.


Last but not least are my peppers. What's happening?????

8 comments:

  1. I love the Swiss chard harvest. I can’t wait for mine to grow some more.
    Same problem with zucchini plant, I will remove it completely if it doesn’t start to grow some fruit soon.
    Peppers do look burned, could it be the wind or the sun?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great looking harvest! Chard is definitely a veg worth having.

    Yikes, I've never seen a pepper plant like that. At least it's not too late to purchase a new transplant.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That looks like a virus of some sort to me. On a positive note, beautiful turnips your daughter grew.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely harvest! My summer squash always do that, but eventually the male blossoms show up and everything goes as it should. Don't give up on them! I ended up with over 36 pounds of yellow crookneck squash last year, from just one hill (2 plants). Those were just the really young squash, I composted any larger ones that got away from me!

    I don't know what has happened to your peppers. I think Ottawa Gardener is spot on when she says it looks like a virus.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very nice harvest. Sorry about your peppers. I have no idea what is wrong with them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely chard and turnips!

    I agree with the virus diagnosis for the peppers. It's probably best to pull the plants and replace them with healthier ones, the virus can be transmitted from plant to plant by sucking insects like aphids or leaf hoppers.

    Try picking the male blossoms and refrigerating them until the female blossoms open and then hand pollinate - I seem to remember seeing that on someone's blog a while back but can't remember whose it was . . .

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think my last comment got lost in cyberspace so I'll try again. I often have issues with one plant pollinating itself. Some just don't like to put out both kinds of flowers at once. I'm guessing it is a survival mechanism to keep them from self pollinating. I've found that I always have to plant more than one to get decent pollination. But as Granny says later in the year they get bigger they don't seem to be as picky.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would think the zucchini would cross with the crookneck. They are supposed to be the same species (Cucurbita pepo).

    I didn't always weigh my harvests but I'm doing so this year. It's amazing how much it all adds up to!

    ReplyDelete