The recent heat wave in the PNW has really accelerated the garden; I could see the plants growing inches every day. Here is the side garden
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Great pictures! I’m obsessing over what the cat is thinking. Your sunflowers look awesome! What kind are they? Here’s my sunflower. Emphasis on the singular. One . I think Lemon Queen.
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Thanks @shrinkrap - yours is looking good too! Not sure what kind of sunflowers by name, but H buys seed packets of smaller headed mixed colors. We also have quite a few volunteers from last year. They attract bumble bees to pollinate the tomatoes, and we like to cut them for bouquets too, later on in the summer.
I need the pepper masters’ advice.
I started a few Gorria indoors in March, they are the variety for Espelette pepper. The bigger leaves you see here are from the time it was indoor under lights, even since I put it out end of April, weather was mostly rainy and not particularly warm, nowadays the average about 15- 20°C / 59°-68°F at night. There was a few days of hot days though. I tried to prune the top hoping a brushy plant back in May, the growth was extremely slow. A few days ago, I noticed these buds. Should I let the flowers grow or should I concentrate on a brushy plant, I hope to keep the plants for several years. Or it’s already too late now this year for the plants and I should start new seeds and new plants next year? TIA.
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Can you show your corn in progress photos later? I’m temped to grow them, but we’re told that they love heat.
Your potager is looking good, how’s your fig tree doing?
Nice! Do you know what kind of pepper it is ( annum, chinenses, pubescum, etc )? I think that will affect the outcome, but maybe you already have a plan or overwintering in your climate.
Here’s my tomato plants. There’s some peppers too.
ETA espelette is an annum. Might be tricky to overwinter and keep productive for years. Maybe you have already seen this. It suggests you can overwinter 2-3 years.
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Thanks! Very impressive your potager…
I’ve just reported them to bigger pots, hopefully they are happier.
I’ve grown this annum 2 times. They were in good shape until November, a cold shock and instant death. My plan is to transfer them indoors and grow lights till April and May.
Thanks for your link, useful information on treatment and overwintering. I didn’t know they like slightly acid soil, will try to do a ph test.
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Not sure how long they are going to take but initial progress is slow. Do they hit a particular growth spurt?
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Perlette and Thompson’s Seedless are really hard to tell apart, apart from their productive climate ranges. If one is a bit more oval, it’s likely the Thompson’s; Perlette is typically slightly more round/spherical.
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Corn runs around 70-110 days to harvest, depending on the type. Some of the Giant Peruvian ones take longer. Sweet corn usually has 75-95 days to harvest, unless it’s a smaller/bantam variety. The growth spurt tends to be around when they hit “knee high”. Which, is part of that old saying; corn should be “knee high by the fourth of July”. Corn is a heavy feeder.
In raccoon and opossum infested areas, avoid fish emulsion! The last thing you want is to attract corn thieves with the tantalizing aroma of rotten fish. “Deodorized”? Right! An opossum punctured a gallon jug of fish emulsion and it leaked out in the backyard, attracting vultures. The varmints slowly ate away at the jug; nasty!!
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Thanks, as always! I hate to abuse your kindness and generosity, but I seem to recall one of them bears on one year old wood, and the other on two. Because I can’t tell which plant is which, my pruning is really sketchy. Over the years I can see they grow very differently; one sort of from the crown, and the other throws long canes from other long canes. Do you have any suggestions from those uninformed clues?
Both varieties fruit on new growth which pops out of last-year’s canes. With Perlette, which should be “spur pruned” (shorter pruning of this year’s wood), the fruit clusters will form closer to the main trunk. With the Thompson, which is “cane pruned”, a bit more of this year’s wood is left and clusters of fruit form farther towards the tip of where you prune. Here’s a good writeup. And!! It mentions both varieties.
I can never remember this stuff, so refer to reference books or bookmarked web pages. Kiwis get similar treatment. Fungus is a big issue over here; so I stopped growing grapes some years back. Hardy kiwi are much easier to grow here, but I’ve neglected the old vines and they need “chainsaw correction”!
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That was very helpful; thanks. I’ve read about it over and over but can’t decide and sometimes do nothing.
I usually keep my shishito peppers in smallish pots and they grow quite well. Maybe, like you said, it’s the cooler weather? We got “lucky” (personally, I hate hot and humid weather) in the northeast of the US because we’ve had an usually hot and humid start to our summer. I was amazed my pepper plants were flowering despite being only about a foot tall. I could have sworn they didn’t flower until they were about 1.5 ft last year. My tomato plant is also going crazy in a good way, much to my surprise.
The outlook though is not so good. The hot humid weather has also resulted in massive thunder storms the last few days. We’re also now looking at tropical storms over the next 3 days, so we’re getting more days ofheavy rainfall. My poor plants might now get waterlogged. I hope they make it through ok. 
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Good luck! I still ponder about why mother nature doesn’t get it right for ever single situation.
Is there a self-fruiting kiwi variety?
ewsflash, there are at least two hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta) which are self-fruiting/self-pollinating: Issai is the most common. Prolific is the other variety and is a less rampant grower. Both make smaller fruit than the female-only types, like Ken’s Red, which requires a male. Male plants even help pollinate the self-fruitful varieties. I’ve grown all except Prolific. Each vine takes about a 12 foot x 6 foot (3.6 x 2 M) T-trellis, although they can be grown on vertical trellises. They require several prunings each year. The last one, in July-August, is to encourage fruiting, one year old spurs for the following year.
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