Plot Progress - Watermelon Trellis is up, plants are in the ground

Today I made it to the plot and mounted the fence material to the framework for the watermelon trellis.  As I mentioned previously, the trellis is rotated 180 degrees from last year.  I have the downward slope facing to the south this year.

The idea is to try to grow the watermelons and train them up the trellis (as last year) and to grow cucumbers in the shade created by the watermelons.  I'd read that cucumbers won't create female flowers if the temps are consistently over 95.  Considering no cucumbers came about until the end of August, that theory makes sense.

Once the trellis screen had been put up, I scrounged up some triangle-shaped tomato cages from last year to use for the cucumber trellis.

The watermelons were planted along the bottom of the watermelon trellis and the cucumbers inside the cucumber (tomato) cages.  Once they were in the ground, I put collars around them in an attempt to protect them from a second year's annihilation by some little critter or another.

I also found Cosmos volunteers (I think?) in need of transplanting and a new friend for Wifey.

Saving my Watermelons from Squash Borers and Squash Bugs

Last year, my watermelons did fantastic for the first few weeks of their life.  Unfortunately, they were wiped out by a predator.  One day I went to the plot, did some work and admired the foliage and the fruit on the vine.  Two days later, I returned and found all the flowers had turned black and the leaves looking wilted.  I was only able to harvest a single watermelon from six plants.

Logically, that means that something had killed everything at the source.

I did a fair amount of research and I have identified two possible culprits: the Squash Vine Borer and the Squash Bug.

The squash bug doesn't appear to attack the melon plant directly, unlike the squash borer.  The squash bug injects a disease called Yellow Vine Decline into the plant as it feeds.  The disease starts to yellow vines, but can and will kill the entire plant.

The squash borer will fly up to the base of a target plant and lay an egg inside the stem.  Once the egg hatches, the larvae feeds on the inside of the stem blocking the water and nutrients from flowing upward killing the plant.  Once it's large enough, the larvae exits the stem and burrows into the soil to become an adult moth at a later date.  I've found some sources that say that the borer will occasionally attack melons.  I think this is a more likely culprit given the rapid death and the fact it came in June which appears to be when the borer moth is said to go active.

Last year, I was applying Seven Dust to my watermelon plants to deter pests.  I can't say that I really applied a lot to the base of the plants, however.

This year, I tried something different.  I had Wifey save toilet paper tubes and installed them as collars around the base of the plants.  I did this for all my watermelons and also put them around the cucumbers just for giggles.

I really hope this works....

Plot Progress: bean trellises are in, first runner bean flower

This is going to be a bit redundant with a post I just did about how to create trellises.  I was just going to post about what I did today, however, Wifey had recommended that I do more "how to" type stuff on the blog instead of merely giving statuses of progress.
Today, I installed two green bean trellises as well as the scarlet runner bean trellis.  Took quite a while.  I used up some leftover bamboo from a few years ago as well as a few stakes I'd created by ripping some lumber.  Cheap!

I was also thrilled to see that we have our first flower for the scarlet runner bean.

Plot construction: Making Trellises

Last year I did a post discussing building trellises for crops to climb. 

The preferred method of trellis that I use is to create an A-Frame from poles.  Bamboo is great for this purpose; just be sure to dry it for about 10 days vertically before using it to ensure it doesn't take root.  Lumber works, too.

Helpful hint:

Rather than buying stakes from a hardware store (Home Depot sells 5' stakes for $2.28/ea), buy a 1x4 from a salvage yard and carefully rip it in half with a saw.  My favorite salvage yard, Community Forklift, sells them for 15 cents/foot.  A 90 cent board that's 6' long would give you two two stakes making them 45 cents a piece.  Much better value considering you're going to leave it outdoors exposed to the weather, anyway.

I stick the base of the vertical poles in the soil around 8"  and have them cross at a desired height then lash the spars together where they cross.

Helpful hint:

Give thought to how tall your trellis web will be before you lash the spars together.  Seems like common sense, but I've mistakenly made mine too tall on occasion.  Like this year, for example.

The web for the trellis could be anything that's hatch-worked.  I use both salvaged fencing material as well some plastic fencing as you can see in the picture above.  To attack, you just tie some twine to the corners of the web, then to the "corners" of the frame and tighten.  As I mentioned last year, I use taut light hitches to keep those lines snug.

Helpful hint:

Use synthetic twine for your lashing because it breaks down from the weather slower than natural fiber twine.

I've seen people weave the trellis web in some way.  One of our plot neighbors does that but, unfortunately, he doesn't speak English.  I've yet to figure out how they do that, but I'm sure impressed.

Another way to create the web is to run your twine around some screws or nails.  This really only works well if your trellis (or arbor) is going to be relatively permanent.  I did this with the runner bean arbor.  I used deck screws.  They are installed roughly 4" apart on the vertical and horizontal beams leaving about 3/4" sticking out from the surface.  The web is created by tying the twine in one corner, then weaving it down (or across) in a pattern.

Helpful hint:

I recommend using multiple lengths of twine.  By creating the web in this manner, you don't have to redo all the work if one of the lengths breaks for some reason.  For no particular reason, I generally do 3 segments per piece of twine.

Once your trellis web is attached to the spars, the only thing left to do is to help guide your crops (melons, beans, cucumbers, etc) to the desired parts of the web you want them to follow.

Proof of a predator: Mexican bean beetles at work!

For the last few years, I've lived in fear of getting my beans annihilated.  Our first year trying to grow organically, I tried Neem oil to deter pests from my beans.  That year, two boxes of green beans, a box of red beans, and a box of lima beans all met their gruesome demise.  Based on the holes in the leaves and listed expected predators from reading, I suspected it was the Mexican Bean Beetle that did all that damage.  I looked numerous times, but was never able to know definitively what critter it was that did it.

Until today.

Today, as I was preparing to apply some bug dust, I looked down and saw one of the little buggers going to town on some of the beans.  I crushed him with a certain degree of glee.  Then it occurred to me that I should have taken a picture for the blog.

After a little more looking, I found one of his family members and, after taking his mug shot, executed him in a similar manner as his cousin.

So now I know for certain what's been eating my bean plants.


I'm going to try to remember to do some research into whether there are any varieties of heirloom beans that the Bean Beetles don't care for.  I really would prefer to be fully organic; Seven dust isn't organic.  Unfortunately, row covers are the only "organic" method I can think of that would truly keep the beetles off the plants.  Also unfortunate is that I prefer pole beans to bush beans (far easier on my back and knees) which means that row covers aren't viable.

Plot Progress - Thai Basil, Peppers, Tomatoes, Beans, Cosmos

I was able to make it to the plot today to get a little work done.  Nothing all that impressive; pruning tomatoes, staking tomatoes and peppers, watering.

The tomatoes are growing steadily as are the beans.

There should be some kale ready for picking this weekend!

 

It was nice to see that the thai basil is doing quite well, too. 

The cosmos are slowly coming up from the haphazard seed job I did in their bed.

Plot status - baby carrots and radishes

The warm weather and lots of rain as led to more beans coming up as well as carrots (below left) and more radishes coming up.  Not much done today.  More trimming of tomatoes and peppers, watering, and bug dust application.  I'm going to try to stagger the planting of the carrots and radishes so we consistently have them through the summer.