Sun Gold Tomatoes

Listener Ken from Milwaukie has been a regular caller with reports on the production of his Sun Gold tomato plant.  He began calling last year and I looked forward to his weekly counts.  This year he sent me a photo of his plant.  The plant is 11 feet from the far right to the far left and when he called me last Saturday he had picked 1,100 tomatoes from this one plant.  After calling, he picked another 160 and so his count is up to 1,260!  You can see from the picture that he has made a raised bed with concrete construction blocks and he planted marigolds and parsley in the holes.  I hope he continues to give me updates.

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Growing Okra

Listener, Susanne from Aloha has continued to keep me informed on her okra growing progress.  During August she has called into my show and sent me photos.  If you go back to my blog on August 16, you will see a photo that Susanne sent that shows her okra plants growing in her garden.  I have never seen okra growing and had doubts about it growing in Oregon because of all reports I have heard, it needs lots of heat to mature.  We have recently had plenty of hot weather and it appears her okra plants are thriving.  Susanne recently sent me a photo of some of her harvest and that is the photo shown here.  She learned that picking the pods smaller is better, usually about 2 inches long is ideal.  I enjoy hearing about Susanne’s efforts in continuing to grow okra, to learn more about it, how to grow it and how and when to harvest.  Last report was that she was making Creole chicken, with okra of course!

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Impatiens

During the past several weeks, I have had several listeners call and write about their Impatiens plants not doing well and often dying.  While Impatiens are usually easy care plants for our area, there is a disease that has devastated some home garden plantings this year.  The plants seem to be doing well and then one or two will appear as if they need water and the leaves will turn yellow.  Soon this spreads to other plants and an entire flower bed can be destroyed.  There is no cure for home gardeners but it is very important to remove plants and do NOT put them in the compost bin.  Take out all parts of the plant; roots, stems and leaves and place them in a garbage bag.  The culprit causing the damage is a disease called downy mildew and it spreads by wind and water.  If you have infected plants, do not replant impatiens in the same bed as the spores can live for several years.  New Guinea Impatiens seem to be resistant and could be planted or most any other garden flower. 

The photo shown was taken in mid July in what had been a healthy flower bed of impatiens.

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Plant Nerd Lettuce

At Plant Nerd Night this past March, one of our sponsors was Territorial Seed Company from Cottage Grove (www.territorialseed.com).  They gave away 500 packages of a special lettuce seed mix called Plant Nerd Blend.  Listener Janet from Lake Oswego sent me this photo of her planter box full of lettuce.  She divided her packet of seeds into several groups and planted seeds in two week intervals to prolong her harvest.  This photo shows the final sowing in a planter box on her deck.  She has been harvesting and enjoying lettuce for most of the summer and reports it is an excellent mix of lettuce leaves.

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