Monday August 12

This is the month when vegetable production peaks while the plants begin to show a decline.  The older leaves are yellowing and showing the rusts, black spots and other fungal diseases that take their toll.  Some plants, like the Provider bush beans I planted in May, have started another round of production even though they look pretty awful.  The foliage may not be perfect but the plant already has a root system and vascular system in place, so it is still capable of making some nice beans.

I've been picking beans nearly every day and freezing most of them.  I can eat snap beans nearly every day.  Here's most of what was harvested this week, and I believe it's in chronological order.   

More Millionaire okra.  I'm picking the okra much smaller now.  I was holding off picking the small pods, thinking they just needed to size up a little more.  But in a days time they would go from small pods to oversize pods that were a bit woody.

More beans, eggplant and a single tomato.  The round beans are either Provider or Tendergreen.

Cucumbers had stopped producing for a while, but with the warm weather a few more ripened.  These beans are mostly Kentucky wonder.  The summer squash, Genovese, is intensely crowded by the much larger acorn squash.  That's a good thing because in the little space it has it produces one or two squash a week, not five or six.

I was waiting on the next batch of tomatoes to fully ripen on the vine, but one morning I found this one about 20 feet from the plants.  I suspect a raccoon.

I picked the tomatoes that day and put them indoors.  In a few days the peppers will be ready and I'll make another batch of salsa.

On Sunday more stuff.  The lone Silver Queen okra stands out. 

The Silver Queen okra plants are like small trees now, about five feet high with thick trunks.  They haven't produced nearly as much okra as the Millionaire plants in the SWC's, but right now they are thick with buds and I expect a flush of production soon.  They have thick walls and make excellent okra pickles.

For the week:  beans 2.9 lbs, cucumber 2 lbs, eggplant 1.2 lbs, okra 0.9 lbs, summer squash 1.9 lbs, tomatoes 6.6 lbs.  Weekly total 15.6 lbs, yearly total 125 lbs.  To see what other people are growing see http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/