Fruits and veggies?

[Roberta]

BT will do the job... and you can use it on the outdoor orchids too. It is very sad to see a flower or bud disappear and there's a little green "worm" doing the munching... BT causes them to stop feeding, and kills them that way. Harmless to humans, pets, and essentially everything except insect larvae.

[DirtyCoconuts]

What is BT?

Jscott- ahem, make pickles!!!!!

[Roberta]

BT = Bacillus thuringiensis . You should be able to get it at Home Depot or equivalent. Not sure of what brand names might be used... when I need it I just look around and read labels, product names are pretty much descriptive.

[kvet]

Here's my bountiful blueberry harvest!
Online instructions said to cut flowers off the first year. I regret doing this, and happy I left a few to fruit. This "emerald" variety was tangy and bitter, like an ex gf

I may need help pruning the bushes later, they are not growing as expected (wide instead of up).

[estación seca]

A guy in our fruit growing club here said each blueberry he harvested from his own plants cost about $75.00.

I wouldn't prune a young bush just getting established. And they really are better if you fertilize with acid plant fertilizer. My mom lives a little inland from the coast in Southern California. She has some growing in large containers with nothing but peat moss as potting medium. She has her gardener give them acid fertilizer every time I visit. She gets large amounts of delicious fruit from bushes only 2 1/2' / 90cm tall and wide.

[kvet]

For anyone that recalls earlier in this thread, I'm 99% certain my tomatoes suffered from too much nitrogen and not curly leaf disease. They have had all the symptoms described here:
What causes tomatoes to become mealy or soft? | Mississippi State University Extension Service

As the summer progressed, the plants began to grow normal. Sadly, now they look like they've been hit with blight and I'm not sure the latest tomatoes will ripen in time, but I'm hoping still. I am going to do things different next year! Cherokee Purple!

The garlic was very small, I think because I didn't give them enough chill. Cucumbers.. I'm sad only four so far, hundreds of flowers though. Hoping for more, I want me some pickles.

Bonus pie from the massive blueberry bumper crop harvest!

[DirtyCoconuts]

EXCELLENT- thank you for sharing!

the thing about gardening is that you have to LOVE the process as much as the results or you will quickly sour to the experience - i think that harvest is awesome and i also want some pickles but i cannot beat the snails down here and so i buy them LOL

[kvet]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

i also want some pickles but i cannot beat the snails down here and so i buy them LOL

What about growing them in pots/buckets with one of those lower-n-lean trellis setups, then spread something like sluggo around the buckets every night? Or maybe just pickle other veggies. Slugs got to my ramps in april, that was a bummer.

[Roberta]

I don't even bother to try to grow pickling cukes...if I want pickles, I buy the cukes for modest price and no trouble, then pickle them with salt, dill (also bought) and lots of garlic. Yum.

Once, a neighbor gave me some zucchini plants because she had some left over from buying a flat of them. I got flowers, nubbins of fruit, then the "wildlife" (suspect 'possums, raccoons, and squirrels) got every single one. THAT was probably a blessing in disguise, since zucchini get out of hand so very easily.

[estación seca]

Okra is my favorite pickle. Easy to grow in hot weather.