GREAT Harvest Frank!!!

ANY ONE TRY Diatomaceous earth?

I am having problems with ants and grasshoppers in the garden. This stuff is supposed to kill all crawlies in the garden and be organic. It looks like seven and goes on like seven but is 4lbs for l2 dollars. I guess the cost is the same as seven.Its supposed to be like glass and get in their crevices and cut them up.

Whats have you guys used besides sevin to get rid of grasshoppers and ants? I know most ants in the garden are harmless unless the are herding aphids and eating my okra like they are.

In laws live in recharge zone in Edwards Aquifer, and they can pnly use this product. They have very good luck with it, and I have used it in the past, and it does the job for sure. Hope you get rid of those aphids..I had too wasn't an easy task...

Ants were gone 10 minutes after I put it on the okra. Now if they can just stay gone...

I've noticed ants on my okra as well. I haven't noticed any distress, markings, holes or otherwise on the okra. Are they harmful to the plant?

I've never had them do much damage, but they have gotten to a couple of pieces of okra before...Grasshoppers and other pests seem to do the most damage...

Now is time to have your squash, tomatoes, etc. in for a fall garden...

The ants on the okra are a different species than the ones that are farming the aphids. The Okra ants are bigger and I believe they are carpenter ants. They are only getting a few okra true so I am not overly concerned with these but they have covered 2-3 okra and are eating it. Not a big problem with okra as fast as it produces. The other ants ,smaller and black, on the other hand are NOT eating none of the plants what they do is move aphids to good eating spots and let them get their fill then go in and feed on the aphids. Once the ants are done feeding they will move the aphids to another good spot and do the same. So I have been trying to kill the aphids and do about a 98% kill on the aphids but the ants take the live ones and start them back up again. Dang smart ants,lol..... Ants (depending on species)in the garden are not a bad thing if you have everything in check , they will actually eat bugs that fall of your plants and are responsible for other beneficial things. I did not catch the aphids soon enough so I am going to get rid of the ants at this point. Plus this DT earth stuff should work for other pest like grass hoppers also. I let you guys know how the stuff works in a few days.

Could be carpenter ants , I do not know species and just through that out there since it came to mind.
On the dusting stuff I will definitely do as I do with spreading of all powders and use a mask.

That DT is perfect for getting rid of pests everywhere. and its not harmful to people at all.. i remember the first time we bought some the guy actually ate some just to show i was safe. hope he is still alive lol

I'm feelin' ya Tin Head. Nothin' but peppers left. Lost the war with stink bugs. Whats the trick to getting the orange habaneros. Mine have stayed green.

You might have to leave the Habs. longer and let them ripen a little. Stink bugs are some tough little critters to eliminate.

What makes tomatoes crack or bust? I'm assuming it is the rain we had this last week.

Everyone of my ripe ones split down the side. They are rather little too.

When a tomato begins to ripen, the outer flesh begins more fragile. When cooler water hits it, it causes it to split. One more reason to water EARLY morning before the sun has had a change to raise the temp of the tomato...

infrequent watering would be the main cause like LSS said. The soil gets dry then a heavy watering. Using a good mulch will help out to keep the soil at a more consistent moisture level also. Ideal would be for the soil to stay moist, not wet, 100% of the time. This time of year i like watering in the evenings, it works for me. The water has about 12 hours to soak in the soil before the sun and heat come up. And the plants have the same 12 hours to enjoy the moisture with out the Texas summer beating them up during the day. Mulch helps through out the day to retain the moisture.

The DE stuff posted above does work but i think it would be best with one of those "puffers", I forget the name. The deals where you put the powder in the can and it has a pump to distribute the powder in a cloud, anyone know the name and where to find one?

EDEIT: and a face mask. I wonder how much DE the guy was selling that he felt the need to eat it?

check other gardening websites seen some there.

I've had fire ants on my okra for about two weeks. Pizzed me off enough that I got the machete after them on Friday. No worries though, I have more dang okra than I need already, and still have 5 plants in the ground...

time to do some weeding today and put together the plan for the fall garden.

According to the the recommended planting dates for North Texas, I'm a couple weeks late for planting peppers and tomatoes. Does anyone know if planting these (in the next couple days) is a worthless attempt, or might I get something out of it?

Also, does anyone know where I can get seed potatoes at this time in the year? All the local places seem to stop carrying them after the Spring (that I can find).

It's been a while since I've been in here. Here's my latest work:

This:



Transformed into this:



Which has now transformed into this:


Later on, I'll finish the top half. It's a little too warm right now.

You can go ahead and try peppers and tomatoes...I think we'll get a later freeze this year...

Looks good, by the way...

I use soaker hoses. We did have some good solid later afternoon rains about a week and half ago. I guess that is what did it.

I water in the evening when I get home.

What type of mulch should I use?

depends on a few things as far as what kind of mulch, main thing is you dont want something that is going to throw your ph level off. I used wheat straw. Theres a organic place close by that sells cedar mulch for 22 dollars a bobcat scoop. I use a soaker hose also and one thing I learned is to give the garden a good spray of water ,concentrating on the stems, do this atleast once a week. This will help keep pest from getting out of control.

Yup, looks like you got the fever. Time for an intervention.

Buy some taters and put a few under your sink for a couple weeks. You should have some sprouts and I believe you have enough time to try this if you can't find any "ready to plant" anywhere. I wouldn't bother with Russets but Yukon Gold and Reds (if you can find 'em) should sprout ok (plus, they'll be more amenable to cooler temps).

Nice garden patch. Now where you gonna put the hot tub?

I've got a really nice serrano plant this year. Must be three feet tall with deep green foilage and was covered with flowers. I've gotten one chili off of it so far.

What's the deal? Is it better for serranos to be planted in pairs for pollination ? I've always had good yields from single plants.

In the middle of the garden of course...