Well September is over and we are in to Spooktober now so time for another update. September was a pretty crappy month for me. I wasn't able to do much in the garden due to swelling in my feet and legs from the infection I got back at the end of August. About all I was able to do was harvest every 3 or 4 days. Cucumbers nearly all died but I managed to keep most of the zucchini alive. Did get some powdery mildew after some rain and humid days. I sprayed for it soon enough that I only lost a few plants. Peppers and tomatoes are doing well. Tomatoes got a little unruly but not like I could tie them much more anyway. Plants had already exceeded the height of the stakes. Watermelon did decent but I lost several to raccoons and lack of rain. They just ripened prematurely and rotted on the vine. Still managed to break my old record for them though. Even managed to get 2 cantaloupes this year.
Here are the totals:
Cucumbers: July 682, August 551, September 161, Total 1394 Like I said above most of the plants died in late August. The rest really aren't doing well. Few decent cucumbers here and there but nothing like there should have been.
Peppers: July 3, August 65, September 276, Total 344 A variety of different peppers. Cayenne lead the way with 139 followed by Jalapeno/Serrano at 93 and Sweet Banana at 82. Also had 28 Greek Pepperoncini and 4 green. There is at least one more variety out there but I haven't picked any yet. Lots of peppers though.Tomatoes:
July 0, August 408, September 1457, Total 1865 Most of the tomatoes so far have been grape and cherry varieties. Only 35 larger ones so far. There are some starting to ripen but not many regular/Roma ones germinated. Still thousands on the vines.
Zucchini: July 75, August 135, September 67 , Total 277 Not as many as the previous months. I did loose a few plants. Still 67 is 1 more than my previous record for an entire year. I thought they were finished twice now. First time I thought they were done I went out and there were another dozen. Second time 7. They look done again but then it rained and they all flowered. If we don't get frost tonight there could be another big batch.
Watermelon: July 0, August 2, September 14, Total 16 Another record harvest. Old record was 13. Should have had at least another dozen. I have some plans to improve things for next year. Higher fence for starters. A 2 foot high fence with a top was not nearly hight enough. At least 4 foot next year and make sure it's all the way to the ground. Plants were already too spread out when I put the fence in this year so I had to cut some corners where I couldn't reach.
Cantaloupe: July 0, August 1, September 1, Total 2 Might not be many but it's the first time I've managed to grow them. Well I grew one last year but it got stuck between 2 boards and came out flat and inedible. I lost 5 more. 2 to raccoons, 2 to lack of rain, and one just never got a husk so bugs ate it up. Funny thing is the 2 I did get came up on their own from last years failures. I didn't plant them. Next year I plan on putting in converting some watermelon space so I should have more.
Beets: July 0, August 9, September 19, Total 28 First time growing these so guess it's not bad. Most I planted in pots. They did better than I initially thought. Now that I know how big they get I can space them better in the pots. Get them started earlier too so I can get 2 harvests. Still a few out there but they haven't popped yet.
That's the harvest so far. Neighbors have been well fed. I'll leave you with a few harvest pics.
