Glad to hear it Jay. I picked my first maters from plants that I grew myself today. Had a Vorlon, a Black Krim, and a Costoluto Genovese. Oh I've had a few Tess's and a few Black Cherry before this from plants that I grew. Have also had one Early Girl and a few Sweet 100s from plants that I bought. As if the heat and lack of rain aren't bad enough this year, I have found several fruit ruined by tomato fruitworm and a couple with blossom end rot. What a year!!

On the garlic front, we've had one of the best years ever for Elephant Garlic and two other regular garlic, which I don't know the name of because one was "just garlic" that my grandfather grew for years and the other a red one that we bought in Calif last year and brought home.

Congrats, Jay, on the first tomato! Considering what your plants have been through, it is amazing you're already harvesting!

And, if you weren't watering more now, I'd be shocked. You're only in "Exceptional" drought after all, and it is accompanied by brutal, drying winds and high temperatures.

It sounds like the drought has been especially hard on the garlic this year. Is hail damage a part of the reason for the disappointing harvest, or do you feel like it is mostly just drought-related?

Dorothy, Congratulations to you too! First tomato day is such a happy day.

It is a tough year. I've had some BER on a Heidi that apparently got too dry at some point, but the later fruit that set have been fine. No worms here this year and I hate to say that for fear of jinxing myself. We had no cutworms this year, only a couple of corn earworms, and no hornworms "yet" although I've seen the moths. I do see evidence European corn borers are present on the Texas Honey June corn that we will be harvesting soon, but at least they were not on the early corn.

Glad you got a good garlic harvest.

This is a tough year for gardens and gardeners.

I wonder if it is too soon to hope for an early cooldown in the fall? I've already given up on the concept of having any cool weather in July or August.

Dawn

Jay,

Congratulations on your first tomato. One of my neighbors swears by Super Fantastic. I'm 200 miles south of you and it will probably be the weekend before I harvest my first tomato.

My garlic harvest was mixed. California Early was great and I think that will be my mainstay, although it only keeps until January. Inchelium Red was a disaster and won't be back. Several plants didn't even bulb out and the others produced exceptionally small bulbs. My Creole (this is a blend of two different Creole varieties that I got mixed up) was OK-fairly small bulbs and cloves, but it keeps forever. I still have a few bulbs from last year's harvest. And my Elephant Garlic had good average production. However, I didn't get any severe hail.

Speaking of last weekend, on Saturday we went to 111, which tied our all-time high, and only 110 on Sunday, with high winds and very low humidity on both days. Anyway, I was surprised at the reaction of the plants, despite good soil moisture. The tomatoes show significant leaf damage on the south sides of the plants. Many of the bush snap bean plants have fired leaves half way up and are probably permanently stunted. The others are setting a few pods; fortunately they are a variety that is good enough to eat raw in salads or be lightly stir-fried or steamed so that an occasional handful will still be useful in the kitchen.

The oddest thing was the okra. During the worst of the heat it wilted completely to the ground (the plants were a foot tall and beginning to set flower buds). They suffered no significant damage, although a few of the leaves did receive some noticeable heat scorch.

The only good thing about last weekend's heat was that the 100 degree days since then seem pretty bearable compared to that.

I agree that anything that bears through all this deserves to come back again.

Tom Logan

We just picked our first mater yesterday. It was one little Sungold. LOL I cut it in quarters and split it between the four youngest kids. Oh, they were in heaven! It was all I could do to not lick the knife. Another two Sungolds today but the little snots beat me to them. I think I'm going to ground them for a week, not letting them go outside at all. After I've had my fill, I'll consider letting them back out again. ;-)

Sorry to hear about your garlic. I've just begun harvesting the first of mine, just from a few, pitiful bulbs that managed to make the move. I need to find out what grows well here and get some ordered for this fall. I'm building a nice, big bed dedicated to garlic so I want to fill it with good things!

Diane

We've had 4 tomatoes so far, all from our one earthbox. Two from Mr. Stripey and two Cherokee Purples. They were awesome, although that's exactly what I expected! Last night I found 4 CP with BER, which is heartbreaking, so I treated the EB with lime, and hope that will stop it.

Jay - I've noticed that even our heavily-mulched plants are drying out much faster than normal, too. But, I can't imagine what it would be like without the mulch!

Since we moved this spring, we missed out on garlic this year, and I really miss it. Looking forward to ordering cloves for fall planting!
Carolj

Tom,

Y'all are too hot there! Not that it is especially cool anywere in Texas or Oklahoma this month.

Do you use shade cloth over any of your veggies? I have found it helps keep tomatoes producing a bit longer and keeps pepper plants a lot happier. I haven't tried it over anything else, except that I have used it to shade lettuce plants and keep them producing a bit later in the heat.

Diane, Congrats on the first tomato! What a great mom you are---letting the 4 youngest kids have it.

Carol, I have toyed with the idea of growing tomatoes in EBs, but always have wondered if the constantly moist soil would negatively impact flavor. Do you think the flavor of the maters from the EB is comparable to the flavor of tomatoes from in-ground plants? If you say it is, I think I'll have to try an EB and see what happens.

Dawn

Dawn,

No, I've never used shade cloth. Usually the summers are pretty mild here (average high 93 and low 66 for July with a noticeable cool down most year beginning in mid-August. I do set my plants in CRW cages and wrap the cages with Agribon row cover. I took the cover off as usual around the summer solstice because the plants were growing out of them and the worst of our wind is over by then. I have the cages attached to the steel pipe fence of one our corrals and I put short cedar posts along the fence to provide protection from the low evening sun.

As one of the weathermen down in Lubbock says-"we're in uncharted territory."

Tom

Tom,
Have you been having wind? We have wind almost every day. It is 99 here now with 20-25 mph winds. I have put up shade cloth as a wind break in the past. I like to use sweet corn as a windbreak on the south side of my caged plants. This year my early sweet corn was hailed out. And the replant isn't tall enough yet to help any. In another 2 weeks it should be. We've had more wind the last 3 years than normal. The old times have always said the wind will blow during a drought till it rains. Hopefully this is soon. They are saying 98-100 tomorrow then next week should be all mid to upper 90's. You know it has been hot when you consider 95-99 a cool down. I work in metal engine rooms some. Try to do as much as possible early. But still have to do some in them during the heat. I've been about to melt down. Jay

Jay - my hat's off to you! I can't imagine what a challenge you've had to get to that first mater...except where I live it's been almost as difficult. Just picked our first last nite too...and tonite promptly ate it on/with a venison burger! Ours was a hybrid - Italian Goliath. It was the first to produce last year too...and the last to give it up at the end of the season. I'm sure this one is a keeper on my list.

Tom - HOW ARE YOU DOING IT??? My BFF lived in Sweetwater for many years and NEVER had maters this early. The winds this year are awful...horrible...nothing like I've ever seen. It's like subjecting everything to a freshly opened oven door all day long. Our maters & peppers are on the east side of the house which is cooler..but even they are showing signs of wind burn. We have a good stead of trees just to the south that breaks the wind some...but not enuf. The wind is GAWD-awful where you live. Today when I left work - my car said it was 106...not good.

You can't imagine how this thread encourages me. I picked our first tomato last Fri. and didn't post about it because I thought everyone else had been picking tomatoes, having loads of them. felt it would be unremarkable for me to post about it. It was Bloody Butcher, not very big and I split it with my husband.
Looks like I might have a couple of Sungolds tomorrow or the next day. I started my fall tomatoes, and they are 4-5 inches tall, but I don't know what I will be doing with them. The ones I have look pretty good, considering the year we have had. The horrible wind broke most of my okra plants. If I can keep the rest from some untimely demise I will consider myself lucky.
After my less than spectacular seed starting, I thought I might should find another pasttime.
mo

Jay and p-mac,

Yes, the winds have been the worst anyone has ever seen and lasted the longest. And, I'm not sure how long things can hold out. I was pretty disheartened this evening at the growing extent of the windburn, although I know it will look better in the morning and, except for the bush snap beans, most of the damage is very superficial. The freshly opened oven door is a good analogy to our weather.

The main thing I do is try to keep soil moisture at an optimum level as much as possible, therefore, the relatively small garden that I can keep well irrigated. I have finally cut off the water to my multiplier onions and potatoes, although in a better year I would probably try to keep them going for another week or two. I may try to rig up some additional wind protection, but it is very hard to put up something that won't end up blowing away. My place is way out on the plains, miles from any stand of trees that could serve as a windbreak, and the garden is well away from the house and barn on a piece of ground just downwind from a set of corrals that caught a windblown manure/soil mix for over 90 years.

It is odd to consider afternoon highs in the upper 90s (only 98 today) a break from the heat, but I've found myself thinking the same thing. And yes, my favorite family sayings about drought are: "Well, we're one day closer to that big rain." and "It won't rain until the wind quits blowing and the wind won't quit blowing until it rains."

Tom

Tom,
I may have to try covering my cages. The problem I'm having this year is usually my caged plants are big and have my cages full by this time and the wind don't blow them around. I use 5 gallon plastic buckets around them till them get out of the tops and have some size. I removed the last buckets last weekend. Even on the white ones I was seeing some issues due to the heat and not air circulation. Not they are beating around in the cages. Several bruised stems, blooms and leaves. A few small sections have died. I've also thought about mulching heavier inside the cages. I hate to drive a stake down now as I will disturb some of the roots and I know they need every root in this heat, wind and drought. Jay

Congratulations to you! I picked my first June 25th, Super Beefsteak, it was very small!

Dawn a quick answer to your question above about the garlic. Guess when I was reading posts I missed it. I feel most of my garlic problems was the hail. Some was mine also. The last 2 years due to circumstances I have planted my garlic later than ideal. Last year it didn't hurt me any. This year that along with the hail I feel was the cause for the small bulbs and in some cases cloves. Planting later I've noticed the bulbs seem to mature a little later and bulb up a lot at the end. My bulbs basically didn't grow much if any after the hail. The size they were on May 24th was about what they ended up. Losing all of their leaves may of had an effect also. Many were stripped and had nothing but the center stalk sticking up. And those plants didn't size up at all. I'm sure the drought had an effect but the last 2 years have been dry also and I had large bulbs. I will try to plant earlier this year. The problem I have trying to do at least a little rotation is finding a bare row or two before frost. Jay