Happy to see your plants survived the planting. I unfortunately lost two more plants to some disease, so I'm down to 2 healthy plants. My ML was one that didn't make it. I hope I can get my new ones to continue growing, cause so far they are doing a lot better than the last batch I started. I think I'm getting better at starting seeds, so this is definitely good practice, even if they don't produce to much.

My Survivors

Seedling Progress 18 days

My pepper plants have done well this season, I have new peppers growing each day. Still have a lot of growing season left too, so I hope I get plenty more peppers.

Kevin

Your survivors and seedlings look very good. This ordeal has taught me many things. A 50% survival rate may be a good goal given the conditions.

The foilage on your pepper plant looks fantastic. What are your secrets?

i think my raised beds get extra hot. I am going to bury them under cardboard and straw for a week to get the temps down and then place a new pepper out there. I can still get pepper plants at the BBSs and even picked up two Cherokee Purples yesterday. I am going to try another tomato in the raised bed, but not the Cherokee Purples.

Thank you, not sure my secrets, might be luck. That's a new bed filled half way with composted yard waste and the bottom half was fresh yard waste, lots of worms in there too. I can still get plants here too, but most of them look diseased and the variety is pretty weak.

I got my first flowers on my Black Krim. Is it better to keep the first truss of flowers or remove it?

I hope your cooler weather is arriving. We are having fall-like weather up here.

Sey

Cool, that makes perfect sense. Fingers crossed, I'll get fruit to set. My old plants have recently been fruiting, so it's looking good. The weather has been a little cooler at night, but the days are still reaching high 80's to low 90's with the heat index. Now I'm waiting to see if that storm develops in the Gulf. Hoping it doesn't.

Kevin

My transplants are not looking good. I will be lucky to get 25% survival. They are under attackk by little Beatles and little caterpillars. I hit them with BT.

Tomatoes for fall, in my area, sound good in theory.

It has been frustrating to say the least, trying to grow tomatoes in the fall. Hopefully that BT will take care of your pest problem. I've been lucky on the pest problem this year with the exception of flea beetles. My two plants seem to be happy so far, so that makes me happy. My seedlings are growing better than I could have imagined, I have even began exposing them to the full sun for short periods and they seem to be thriving, now I still have the task of finding homes for all of them in my garden.

Janice - What else do you grow in the fall? I just ordered some various seeds, so I hope to start planting this weekend.

How did you get rid of the flea Beatles?

i have great success in the fall with broccoli, carrots, lettuce (not head lettuce, leaf lettuce), radish, kale, and turnips. My peppers will produce up until frost.

This is from last spring, but I can get very similar results in fall.

Very nice, Im planting pretty much the same stuff. I'm pretty excited to try growing stuff thus fall and winter. Do you plant any garlic? Is head lettuce harder to grow or is it just a preference? I'm still having issues with flea beetles, nothing I've used seems to work on them. I've tried spinosad, DE, insecticidal soap, and lots of mulch to try to make it so they can't make it to the surface. I'm thinking of trying azamax.

For flea beetles I have a simple solution: fine mesh nylon tulle . Jut trow it over everything. It can even deter rabbits. You can find it in any fabric /craft store.I have found flea beetle to be a problem when the plants are in seedling stage.

Tulle also can prevent the butterflies from laying eggs in cabbage family.

Sey

Thanks Sey, I'll look into that, basically like row covers. The damage is more or less just cosmetic, but I just wish I could control them. Between mite and flea beetle damage, some of my plants look unappetizing, if that makes sense.

Pcola:. You can read about advantages / disadvantages on lettuce types here:.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/crops/hgic1312.html

The leaf lettuce offers an early harvest, continually, with less impact from an errant warm sunny day. An early harvest means I get more and the critters get less. A head of lettuce is a high risk venture. That is a lot of juicy temptation for a prolonged period of time.

Leaf lettuce is harvested one or two leafs at a time. With a dozen plants you get a small salad every other day. Lettuce is shallow rooted and loves water. Easy for newbies.

Our warm weather does not produce lettuce like Sey can. All that cool wet weather makes giant dark green lettuce leaves.

So I finally got my plants hardened off and I'm about to plant them out. Not sure if they will produce anything, but it has been good practice growing seedlings for transplanting. This batch of seeds has grown faster and stronger, I think it might be due to the soil I bought or the methods I used, but either way I'm impressed. These plants are now 32 days old. They are all about 6 or so inches and have 5 sets of leaves.

My other plants that I had are not doing that well right now. The Black Krim has some leaf disease that has persisted and claimed many leaves. It did however set its first fruit, its a lil bigger than a marble now. The first truss became infected and dropped all its blossoms. I'm just gonna let it be as I don't think it will really amount to much being diseased.

Black Krim

My Pruden's Purple is doing much better and seems to be more resistant to the leaf disease, it has not lost nearly as many leaves, It's my first time growing a PL variety, it's cool the way it is growing. It has a couple trusses and just started to bloom. It also has a mega bloom, we'll see if it sets. Anyways, I think it will probably produce some hopefully.

Pruden's Purple

Mega Bloom

Well that's my update. Hope your plants are doing good.

Kevin

Hey Kevin: The plants are not doing well. There are four left of the 30 starts and they are not doing well. Even the two I set out later look bad. Leaf diseases that spread too fast . I set a new Cherokee purple out last week. It looks ok. But it has only been exposed for a short time. My garden hygiene must improve.

i picked these on Sunday. There is a message in that harvest: it says grow pepperss when it gets hot.

I looking forward to planting a fall garden. I have many sprouts started.

I am very interested in how your late starts do Kevin. Maybe super late is the key. Good luck and keep us posted .

I finally got my plants planted, had to build a couple raised beds. I think they turned out well. Now hopefully I will get some tomatoes, I can probably build an enclosure if needed.

Nice. Good luck on getting some ripe tomatoes. My plants that survived are showing strong growth. One big beef I had given up on is making a strong come back. I believe I have one each Earls Faux, KBX, CP, ML and maybe a green zebra. My experiment continues.

i believe the 10 August plant out day for mine was way too early. The plants could not grow. Very sad. I watched 25 plants die. At about 10 Sept, conditions started supporting growth.

Nice beds! Plants look good.

Update: some 7 or so survivors. One Earls Faux is doing the best. The others are Kellogs Breakfast and some other heirlooms. Big Beef was not the best survivor. A couple BBs have made strong comebacks. The experiment continues. A Floridian whgille? keeps her young plants in pots in the shade and they get leggie. I think I understand why now . Her plants continue to grow and not suffer from the heat , and when it's time to really grow she can move the Potts. Her strategy makes sense. Even being leggy they get tall with big roots and are ready to take off when the weather is suitable .

in contrast my plants are mostly dead, those that remain seem weakened and they still need to grow some before they make buds . Some some are making buds now .

Those plants still look pretty good. They should be getting a break from the heat some and hopefully they will produce something.

Most of my plants have adjusted pretty well with the exception of a few. I was able to find spots/build beds to put most of my tomato plants. These are the best looking plants I've ever had.

Pruden's Purple is probably doing the best.

The Leaves are massive.

All the plants that were put in containers on 9/14 are getting their first flower clusters.

These are the best looking Mortgage Lifters (bottom 2 on right)

The plants in the new beds were put out a lil later, so they are still getting used to it. It seems like my containers are doing better then my raised beds, not sure why yet.

My Mortgage Lifters over here got sun burned pretty bad, or some kind of funk.

Also my Better Boys don't like the heat, they wilt and limp up during the day, but come back in the evening, I'm hoping the cooler weather will help.

Better Boys after some heat ( I did put some mulch down, just what I had)

Better Boys before the heat

Lookin good. Mortgage lifters here seem more prone to leaf diseases, same as yours.

A thick layer of mulch will help with the heat in those beds.

i see you got some lettuce going. I am setting out much lettuces these days. Got a good start of carrot sprouts too.

I went out just a few moments ago and see the insects are causing ruination for the broccolie starts and a worm was wreaking havoc on a tomato leaf.

Conditions are far from ideal. My battle plan is to have a fresh set of strong new seedlings (fall crops) to follow the failures. Whatever I can get started will do quite well after the first frost. The frost will knock back the bugs.

I also got some of my fall stuff ready to plant. I'm still trying to figure out where to put all of them.

I tried some Radishes, but I think it is still too warm, all leaves, no root. Or they don't like the containers

Some Bean plants

Cumcumbers

And some rescued plants from the butterfly garden down the road

I'm gonna do the same strategy, I have a bunch of 72 cell trays and containers, so I'm just gonna plant tons of stuff and replace ones as needed. I have a couple types of lettuce I'm going to try. I've found a couple bugs/worms here and there, but overall not to bad. The rodents are my biggest problem, they already chomped down on some mustard greens.

Janice, on purpose I thin my tomato plants because my garden is small and I like to fit different varieties and be able to see for problems like bugs or disease, my porch gets morning sun where I have the plants as seedlings later they go in the garden where they are in full sun.

I get similar results every season and what counts is that my garden is very productive.

Kevin, your tomato plants are looking good! radishes and peas like cooler weather. In my garden I have now zucchini, cucumbers, beans, onions, garlic, eggplants, greens, soon I will be planting peas, carrots and beets.

Cucumbers are producing and I had a bunch this morning for breakfast

Greens...

Silvia

Kevin, for the rodents get a trap before they ruin your harvest. In my garden I have the mighty hunter protecting the crops.:)

My dogs try to hunt the squirrels and rodents, but they are always too slow.

My oldest dog, just chilling.

The white one can climb trees now though.

Your dogs look so cute! I have three older dogs but the hunter is the one in the picture, she is 17. Recently I had trouble with something eating the guavas, star fruit and other things and I was considering putting a trap but one night my dog took care of it, next day I was all screams when I saw it. I don't have the problem anymore just in time for the tomato season....

Thanks, your plants all look amazing. I hope to be able to produce such beautiful tomatoes and veggies as you have.

Ditto, beautiful, and I have much to learn. What a dog crew!

I took photos of my garden yesterday, double staked the cages, and picked all the peppers this morning. Now in wait and see mode, and doing some logging.

Weather log for James Island

Date. Time. Wind speed. Temp Precip Pressure Tide ( 7 ft flood stage)

6 Oct. 12 noon. 16 NNE. 72. None 30.0. 6.5 ft (hide tide)

Janice, we cannot fight Mother Nature...in my garden the tomatoes are staked, all the ornamental plants in pots are inside, outside furniture in, picked veggies and ripe fruit, everything else is on its own.

Let's hope that we can ride the storm and that we will only have good news to tell, take care!

Silvia

Hope the best for you guys and the plants. I have learned the hard way what a storm can do to a garden, I cant imagine what a hurricane will do. Good Luck.

I was bored today and took a lil video of my garden. All my plants are doing really, really good. My tomato plants have taken off and are getting the first clusters, hope they will set fruit. I've never had my plants look so good, I'm excited cause these are the first heirlooms I've every grown, and this is the first time growing fall veggies, they are still baby plants, but they are growing quick. I'm also trying different ways to support my tomatoes, from cages to string to a weave, trying to see which one is the best way. I'm up for suggestions, so let me know whatcha think? So if you get bored, here's the video.

Lookin good. A lot of work and it shows. You should have veges all winter. You must not like carrots ;)

The eye passed this morning around 0830. I believe the eye was 20 miles out from Charleston. I may have been a little closer on James Island. I can see my garden, but with strong gusts still, I should not plan to go out until tomorrow. With the wind and water soaked ground, some trees are tipping. I can see lettuce and collards and broccoli, and the peppers are still upright. The tomatoes are in bad shape. I can see a couple are flat on the ground.

Kevin, your garden is looking great! I think a good harvest is coming up your way, gardening is like playing music, the more you played the better you get.

The plants that I thought will be a problem with the hurricane they were fine and I lost others instead that were well established, overall the garden survived the weather.

The tomatoes took a beating with the wind more the potato leaf varieties but they kept all the fruit. My banana with a fruiting branch was not so lucky and went to the floor, I can at least use the bananas because they were almost ready anyway.

Lost the plumeria that was next to the tomatoes and here are some and how they look today that is sunny.

Silvia

They don't look too bad Silvia. I wish my garden looked like that all the time.

Thanks, I've definitely put in some work and hopefully it will pay off. Glad to hear you made it safe, and your plants made it for the most part. I do have some carrots, 3 kinds, but I'm having trouble getting them to germinate, not sure if it's the heat or if the seeds are bad. I also just for some more various seeds from a local feed and seed and I have a 50 dollar gift certificate for johnnys for my b day. So I still have some work to do, I keep making work for myself, but I really enjoy gardening , so I can't wait. Anyways, take it easy, hope the skies clear up soon for you.

Kevin

If your carrot seeds are in a pot ,

Put them in the shade . Then cover them with burlap or some straw and keep them wet . Then be patient .