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You can plant strawberries bare root runners till end of august - latest would be September 10th in your area. But you may need to cover them for winter with straw. Blueberries and raspberries can be planted in October , or even November if they are BARE ROOT. If you buy them in pots - you can plant them any time, just make sure water well if you plant in summer.

There is also a California Wonder variety that ripen to orange too. I am growing Carmen this year for the first time that is a large bulls horn shape and very sweet pepper when ripe. They are prolific but only started ripening to red in the last week or so which was a couple weeks later than the listed DTM I think due to the cool and wet spring.

I have peppers in pots and peppers in the garden. I have a mix of sweet varieties, but I have some of each variety in each location. The garden pepper plants are bigger as are the peppers on the plants. I'm not much of a container gardener, and it's more of a location test on the side of the house but my point is smaller plants do appear to produce smaller peppers.


This may be a be the time to prepare for more tomatoes ...
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2229127/can-we-pick-our-tomatoes-while-still-green
A link worth reading ...
How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table

The most common cause of mealy tomatoes is lack of or inconsistent soil moisture available. Excess day heat followed by overly cool night temps during the early stages of development can also cause it. So can micronutrient issues - specifically insufficient zinc and/or copper.
And reduced size and production is almost always insufficient nutrient issues.
TSWV fruit have a very distinctive external appearance - as in the pic above - but it isn't normally related to fruit size or texture and they do not taste good.
Dave

I'm pretty consistent with my watering. I do a deep watering about 1x per week. I did plant a month early this year cause the drought gave us the temps to do so. We do have cool evenings and warm days here in Sonoma Co, CA.
I didn't go out and search for the bugs .
I guess I'm going to finally get a soil test done, but I have 7 4x8 raised beds and 3 3x8 raised up off the ground beds and can't afford to test them all!
I use my own compost in a few beds per year and have been using the landfill compost (certified organic) for quite awhile. I also get free compost tea.
Unfortunately, our landfill compost is going to be moved due to a lawsuit and we have to use the place that costs twice as much to top our beds!
How would I add zink or copper? Nancy

Routinely you begin a weekly spraying program with fungicide of your choice as well as removing all the affected leaves.
But that's when you catch it early. From your description it is already well established so salvaging the plants now may not be possible.
Dave


These pics of the orange pumpkins also tell a tale about the weight issue from earlier in the year...
In the 3rd pic, it seems to clearly show that as long as the vine itself is adequately supported, the stem will hold the weight of these medium size fruits.
However, in the second and 4th pic (they may be the same from different angles) the vine looks like it may have given way if the pumpkin wasn't supported. Looks like gumby's point from earlier in the year about the stem is borne out, and yet, it also seems that when climbing, the vine itself needs to be secured fast to the trellis.

Tina John, I am in SE Mich and I have them bad. They were present last year but worse this year. They are getting my herbs, peppers, flowers. It's maddening! I am going to try to set out some sort of light traps. I tried to catch them with the soapy water idea last year but didn't have much luck. I see them a lot in my soil when I am weeding.

Hi Fellow Asiatic Garden beetle suffers. I've had these guys in my garden forever! So this is what I do: IN the spring, I hand turn my soil and pick out the grubs as I see them. This will help but not solve your problem. Then, as soon as I start to notice damage to the leaves of my flowers and veggies, I get a large oval dish and fill it with soapy water. Then I drape a light over a chair and hang it very close to the water. You turn this on at night and the beetles are attracted to the light and so they fly into it and drop into the soapy water. I also go out at night and hand pick them and drop them into a cup of soapy water. In the morning you will see the results... or not. Sometimes the birds catch on and eat the dead beetles before you get a chance to see them.
This will help a lot. Good luck!
Mimi

Tiny zucchini are the result of plant stress. The plant just pumps what it can into the fruit, and then it gives up. I've seen this with plants that are planted to close together or (maybe this pertains to you, if I'm not reading too much into the picture you posted), in pots that are just too small. Zucchini are big plants, and they have big root systems. Nothing to do with calcium.
You might try to repot in a bigger pot, and I'm guessing you'll see a very root-bound plant when you remove it.



I am also a collard fan. Extremely nutritious, extremely hardy, easy to grow, disease resistant. The stems are used for stock. People here can not believe that I harvest things in January ad February. Most of the time I wait for a thaw to pick them, because it is hard work to saw a bunch of frozen collard trunks while hunkering down in a hoop house. Cleaned and washed, they remain pristine for 2 or 3 weeks in the fridge inside a garbage bag.


Healthy plant leaves typically contain roughly from 2.5 to 3.5% nitrogen (on a dry weight basis), 0.2 to 0.35% phosphorus, and 1.5 to 3% potassium. We often don't apply them in these relative quantities, partially because uptake efficiency varies. Nitrogen, particularly, is easily lost from soil, and target plants absorb between 30 to 75% of applied nitrogen.
The ratio of your fertilizer is relatively unimportant. Apply as much nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium as is needed. Find a fertilizer that fits your needs. This applies to organic and synthetic nutrient sources.



That's why I raise them in pots to transplant out later. You can control conditions that way...even moving them out of the sun in hot afternoons...that is if you are around to care for them.
I do same as Wayne. Try shading yours if possible and mulch the soil really well around them to help cool the roots down. When the roots are overly warm the plants tend to stunt.
Dave