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Post by Tucson Grower on May 27, 2023 2:23:00 GMT -6
I recently needed to replant/replace a few French quarter red, heavy hitter, and sea island red plants. Basically, the tops had been destroyed, a few days before, by grasshoppers. So it appeared as if those planting spots were vacant.
Once I brought over the replacement plants from my backups, I carefully dug in each location. Lo and behold, each original plant, though without any growth showing above ground, had shoots forming, on their below ground stems (where there, normally, would be no buds), so basically adventitious buds. They likely would have eventually restored themselves. I was pleased and amazed.
Edit: Most had 2 or 3 shoots forming, only 1 had a single side-shoot. In retrospect, instead of discarding them I should have kept them for potential future backups.
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Post by Tucson Grower on May 29, 2023 2:31:36 GMT -6
I went out to water just before midnight - just in time to witness a culprit who has been munching my seedling heavy hitter plants. It was a 4 inch long grasshopper, biggest I've seen, yet this season. It had just finished off another seedling, which I'll replant from backups, tomorrow. Fortunately, I was fast enough, and I stomped it dead.
Edit: I went out to water, 7:00 am. As I passed the area where the dead grasshopper was, I moved it to where it would get more sun (dry out faster), so I could keep it as a reminder. I went on to water elsewhere, when I returned to check on my grasshopper, only the wings remained. Apparently grasshoppers are good bird food but they're too lazy to hunt their own.
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Post by rdback on May 29, 2023 8:37:48 GMT -6
Well, its time to get okra in the ground, so I thought I'd try Heavy Hitter this year. I decided to soak them first, before planting. 24 hours later, HALF had sprouted! Now I know Hank helped Ron shell the okra, so I figure, all things being equal, each one of them touched half the seeds apiece.
So the question is: WHO has the magical touch to cause Heavy Hitter Okra seeds to sprout in 24 hours?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 29, 2023 16:18:12 GMT -6
Hands down, it was Hank!
Everything he lays hands to grows well. His gardening skills never cease to amaze me.
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Post by woodeye on May 30, 2023 8:28:00 GMT -6
The Heavy Hitter seeds, circa 2021, didn't lose their vigor by being in the freezer seed vault, mine all sprouted within 24 hours. Have some coming up inside the Iron Curtain now...🌱🌱🌱
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 2, 2023 11:33:56 GMT -6
That is awesome Woodeye! 🤸 The Iron Curtain Lives!
I can almost see those deer standing outside the fence, smacking their lips and crying ... The only thing that could make that mental picture any better would be some sweet potatoes right along the border, just out of reach.
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Post by woodeye on Jun 2, 2023 21:09:09 GMT -6
That is awesome Woodeye! 🤸 The Iron Curtain Lives!
I can almost see those deer standing outside the fence, smacking their lips and crying ... The only thing that could make that mental picture any better would be some sweet potatoes right along the border, just out of reach. Agreed, heavyhitterokra. The sweet potato row is on the west side of the Iron Curtain, so the runners will be right along the fence fabric sometime this summer. The deer are not gonna be happy about it and that just thrills me to no end. 🚫🦌🚫
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 3, 2023 7:29:00 GMT -6
You guys crack me up. I’ve enjoyed reading the past several posts on this thread just to see the friendship among gardeners. I found that very uplifting. Thanks.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 3, 2023 13:36:17 GMT -6
I just got my smiles for the day by reading Woodeye's deer post.
I sure don't know how, but our gardens here were as dry as a powder keg this morning. Two weeks ago, my seedlings were water-stressed from too much moisture, now it looks like I'm attempting to garden on the surface of the moon.
This was my garden at noon today.
Just for kicks, I picked up a handful of dirt to see if I could photograph it as it fell.As you can see, it was fairly dry. This is what I'd call, "Face Powder."
About 2:00 pm, I thought to myself, "I'm gonna take the Jeep out of the barn and drive it down there with the off to see if I can enjoy some of this good sunshine and finish planting the rest of my potted pepper and sweet potato starts ...
Lo, and behold, by 2:25 pm, the sky turned nearly black with storm clouds, then a clap of thunder like no other! 5 minutes later I was nearly drowned, and drowned like a rat!
This is what my hands looked like by the time I got to the last sweet potato transplant. I just wiped the mud off my hands in the weeds as best I could and made a run for the Jeep! By the time I got back home, the Jeep and I were both soaked to the bone!
I don't know how our soil goes from face power to straight up mud in just a matter of minutes, but it's a fairly common occurrence around here. One extreme to the other in a matter of minutes. (I sure am thankful for the rain though). It was beginning to get scary dry.
Maybe, If I'm really lucky, (I mean really-really lucky) maybe a few million grasshoppers were also drowned in this downpour.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 6, 2023 15:49:53 GMT -6
It's raining here again. Not hard, just the kind we like. Last night at 9:45 pm, I put about a hundred Heavy Hitter Okra seeds in a sealed Ziplock bag with a folded paper towel and some warm water. I've been carrying that around in my shirt pocket all day to keep them warm. I just checked on them a few minutes ago to see that nearly every one of them are already sprouted. I hope the rain lets up long enough to get them in the ground before nightfall.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 6, 2023 18:25:10 GMT -6
That sounds perfect, heavyhitterokra. I looked at your radar map a bit ago, and it looked clear. I hope you’re out there planting right now.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Jun 16, 2023 19:10:10 GMT -6
Apparently the fire ants are now using that one particular heavy hitter F1 seedpod for their nest. Fortunately they aren't doing that with any other pods; at least, not yet. I check frequently.
I'm continuing my attempts at getting them to take poison bait. I even used a hair clip to fasten a bait station to the tip of the pod. The bait appears to have been effective in the 'Old Red Blush' area of the garden.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Jun 18, 2023 10:06:27 GMT -6
This morning I got a 5-gallon bucket ready with about 4 inches of detergent water solution, then cut and dropped the two SIR ant infested pods and the one HH pod into the detergent solution. After I removed the HH pod I noticed the adjacent pod was beginning to be affected, where it had been out of sight behind the heavily infested pod. Hopefully any remaining ants will go for the poison bait before they look for another okra pod to infest. I split the HH pod down its length, the ants had only infiltrated 2 of the several seed chambers, the affected seed, were history, the others looked to be coming along nicely.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 9, 2023 23:24:17 GMT -6
Just a note for posterity:
I harvested my first H.H. okra on July 4th. Several of the pods were overgrown and therefore too tough to keep. I just picked about 2 pounds of tender pods (enough for a 10" inch skillet-sized mess). They were harvested from the row that I planted on April 13th.
Saturday evening, July 8th, I harvest 3 pounds more to give to some friends at our monthly seed savers meeting today. They were very nice 3" to 4" pods.
The grasshoppers have not really bothered my okra plants up until now, but they are beginning to eat the petals off of most of my blossoms and have managed to ruin quite a few of my pods.
I'll post a few photos of my garden, taken today after Church. These are not conclusive photos, they are but a small fraction of the damage done to my half acre garden. Grasshoppers have destroyed all of my squash plants, all of my cucumbers, all of my cantaloupes, all of my Old-Timey Cornfield Pumpkins, all of my sweet corn, all of my collard greens, all of my onions, all of my dill, all of my Kennebec potatoes, all of my Luffa gourds, all of my Red Pontiac potatoes, all of my Beauregard sweet potatoes, all of my lettuce, all of my turnips, all of my Baker Family Heirloom tomatoes, and all of my peppers of various varieties. These are only photos of a few of the plants damaged or destroyed by grasshoppers this year.
Baker Family Heirloom. (This series of photos are interesting to zoom down into, for the details of the 'teeth' marks for lack of a better word).
Jalapeno Pepper.
Cabbage and loads of grasshopper Fras.
Closeup of same cabbage.
Broccoli.
More Broccoli.
Once full cabbage head eaten all the way down to a golf tee.
Another big Baker Family Heirloom tomato.
It's really disheartening to see all of your hard work destroyed once again. Sometimes, I don't know why I keep on trying? A lot of time and a lot of money went into this year's garden. Very little will be salvageable. I've deemed the year 2023 to be my annus horribilis.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 10, 2023 9:14:14 GMT -6
I'm so sorry to see all of this destruction, heavyhitterokra.
I totally understand how you are questioning whether it's worth it to keep trying for a garden. Lesser gardeners would have given up long ago...😔
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