How does it taste @shrinkrap?
Not VERY sweet, but sweet enough, and quite refreshing. Can’t imagine it would be that different in a week or so,
Oh good, at least it wasn’t a total loss. BTW, are you having rolling blackouts where you are?
We had blackouts, but not rolling. We had rolling thunder! The hubs got to roll out the full armentarium of generators. There are even solar batteries, and wouldn’t you know it? The first clouds in about three months.
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Helpful guide, but essentially mineral deficiencies will look like yellow leaves, with some green veins and/or green splotches. 
Don’t know if I’ll really be able to tease those apart.
Is it just me or are the spiders going crazy this summer? I have a number of harmless spiders who live in and around my yard, but this summer they’ve been building webs everywhere! And they keep building these webs that span a few of my plants. I can’t tell if it’s a particularly determined little spider (I never see him/her), or it’s just a few of them who all have a brilliant idea to catch the flies and other bugs that fly near. It’s been very annoying.
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Thought I should take a pic of what’s growing in my pandemic tomato farm.
Everything but the one heirloom and the cherries down right are from the seeds of something we ate from the store early on.
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Very nice @Saregama! Wish we had some ripe ones…had no idea SD was experiencing a cold summer, but I know it can happen on the coast. We are having non summer here, and I’ve felt colder than in the depths of winter. Except for yesterday when it made it to 96, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Hope the tomatoes benefit from our short little heat wave.
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I am more concerned about the spider mites than spiders, crazy or other wise. I don’t the spider mites web between plants, but otherwise, can you tell the difference? The spider mites have really ravaged some of my tomatoes plants since it got so hot in the last week or so.
I don’t know that I’ve seen this before, but some of these tomatoes might be going from underripe to overripe in one or two days because of the heat. Could that be true?
Anyway, I picked some of these Sweet Sue and Perfect Harmony a bit early. There are some reds in the second picture for contrast, and maybe a Dwarf Mr. Snow in there, but he has been very difficult.
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Shrinkrap, how hot is it where the tomatoes are sitting after harvest? They can ripen very quickly if damaged from heat, fungi or insects, mites.
Mites…shudder! Here, the worst ones are Two-Spotted mites; they don’t make webs. They’re mostly an issue indoors, as we have a lot of predatory mites outside. I fight the Two Spots on the Thai Lime until it goes outside. Then, they disappear.
Mites don’t like humidity and wet leaves, but neither do tomatoes! I’ve used a misting nozzle outdoors to lower the Two-Spotted mite populations on plants which tolerate the moisture. Not only does the water encourage disease and death in the mite population, it helps the predatory mites, which need more moisture to be happy. An inexpensive pocket microscope comes in very handy to see what’s going on, friend and foe.
With all the rain, I went out looking for mushrooms, specifically Black Trumpets. And…
They are the secret to the best mushroom soups.
Butterbean limas are coming in from a 30foot long x 7 foot tall trellis. Glad I planted an heirloom, Bandy, a black-seeded variety. Despite two months in the 90s, it’s producing. Limas tend to go sterile from heat. It’s cooling off now, so production should go up.
The greener ones are younger. I got stock from the Seed Savers Exchange and hope to harvest enough seed to list it in the exchange next year.
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Good information and a beautiful harvest; thank you! Within 5 minutes of picking the tomatoes are inside my house, which is about 78 degrees most of the midday, and cooler otherwise. BTW I mean overripe on the vine. They feel like very hot bags of liquid. That’s one reason I’m trying to pick some early.
I wonder if I have two spotted mites as well, because I see what I think is mite damage, but no webs. I’m tempted to spray the bottoms of the plants in spite of the risk of disease, as some are so far gone, I`m probably gone to yank them soon. I assume they won’t be wet for long since it has been so hot, and usually dry.
I wanted to spray neem oil, but its been so hot (106) , so i used Spinosad about ten days ago, and may have thrown off some good guys. Yesterday I noticed a stink bug and damage for the first time this season.
Harvest so far. The blacks ones are blue tomatoes. Green one is Green zebra. Pink one is Berner rose.
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Gorgeous!
I’d love help identifying mine…
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How do you all save seeds?
I’ve did it a year. Don’t know why, the plants became dwarfs plants, they were small and had very little fruits.
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Saregama, to save tomato seeds, you need to let them 'ferment" a bit. Here’s what I do:
•Cut the top off the tomato so you can see the chambers which contain the gel and seeds.
•With a sharp paring knife, remove part of the side wall of the tomato to expose the gel and seeds.
•Scrape the gel and seed into a glass jar. The seeds are covered with a gel that inhibits germination and makes them stick together. So, you want to let yeasts and microbes digest this for awhile.
•Cover the jar loosely, so flies can’t get in. Put it in a dark place, at room temperature, for some days. You’ll likely see molds, often white, growing on the surface. After about 5-7 days, the gel should be digested by the microbes/yeasts.
•Remove any mold blobs (pellicle) and dump the seed slurry into a sieve which will trap the seeds. Rinse the seeds well under running water and use a finger to stir the seeds around until they’re clean.
•Drain and set the sieve on a paper towel or dry dishrag to absorb more of the moisture; about 10 minutes is plenty.
•Spread the seeds out to dry on cardboard, a board, paper plate, etc. They may get stuck to thin paper, so use a material which can be scraped, if needed. Place in a dark area to dry for 2-3 weeks.
•Tomato seeds often are a bit fuzzy and tend to clump. When the seeds have dried, you can rub them to break apart clumps and wear off some of the fuzz, making them easier to plant.
•Label them, including the year. Placing seed envelopes in an airtight jar, in the fridge, will help keep them viable for years. You want to keep moisture out of the jar. Before opening the jar, at planting time, take it out of the fridge and let the jar warm to room temperature. This way, the jar and seeds won’t “sweat”, condense moisture from the air.
Saving tomato seeds is easier than it looks from the above! Each step is pretty quick, especially with practice.
Keep in mind that plants can “outcross”, mate with another variety if wind or insect pollinators go from plant to plant. If you’re growing only one variety of something, it’s easier to have pure seed. Plants that have big flowers, like cucumbers, squash, melons can get mixed up if you have someone nearby growing them. Bees carry pollen great distances!
With tomatoes, insect pollinators are less of an issue, but you can “bag” flowers with a bit of netting, nylon stocking, fabric to prevent cross pollination. This should be done on unopened flower buds; once the flowers are open, it’s too late. I mark the stems of bagged, controlled pollination fruits with a colored twist tie or string, so I know which ones to save seed from.
Sometimes, it’s easier to bag a whole branch on things like peppers. Bagged peppers and tomatoes can fertilize themselves. Vibrating the branches, when in bloom, helps pollen to fall onto the stigma, the female part which catches the pollen.
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Your method is a lot more sound then my mom’s method. She basically just pulls out the ‘guts’ of a tomato and lays it out on paper towels on a plate, while gently cleaning away the gel and tomato bits. 
Your parsley looks great! Sadly, my giant ceramic pot that held my porcelain last year broke this year (stupid fence guy!) , so I won’t get to confirm if they would have sprouted back up next spring. I’d really like to find a new home for parsley, and self-sprouting sounds like what I need.
I’m debating if I should get new garlic bulbs or try to use some of the mini ones I have from this year. I also am more focused about how to keep some of my plants safe over the cold fall and winter (my ginger and lime). My lemongrass is starting to bust out of their small container, so I definitely have to replant before the fall comes.
The two things I’ve been thinking about adding to the garden are beets and radishes. I have bunnies that come into my garden at night - do I have any hope of growing beets and radishes without the bunnies getting to them first?
My real wish list is for a blueberry bush, but that might require more maintenance than I’m ready for. Ah, to have a year-round growing season, like you do in California…I can only dream of that.
EDIT: Has anyone tried to grow their peppers indoors over the winter? I pulled my pepper plants last year when it got cold, but I’ve been getting such a nice harvest from the shishitos that I would love to keep them going if I move them indoors, but just don’t know if they’ll do well enough to actually produce anything.
