Found out that the blueberry bush was definitely suffering. It was in direct sunlight on the center of my balcony and so (while blueberry bushes are supposed to be in full sun) there was too much sun because we live in southern California (zone 10) and my balcony is all white creating a burning effect on the plants leaf edges. I first tilled in some Alazea food into the first few inches of the blueberry bush pot (this is highly acidic which is necessary for the roots of the bush to absorb nutrients). The reason the bush’s leaves were coming out light lime-colored looking sick with chlorosis was because the soil was too alkaline. So in a few days the problem should be fixed. To fix the issue of sun I decided to put the bush in the corner of my balcony which offers (partial) sun. I will keep this issue updated as next year I hope to have a multitude of blueberries.
And now to talk about some issues.
1.Aphids, Black Mites, other pests on balcony
The other day I was looking at the general feel of most of the plants on my balcony as I noticed they all looked a little under the weather. It started with the marigolds looking twisted and curly with leaves turning brown and dying. The other plants didn’t look as bad although a lot of them (mainly the bell peppers) looked like they hadn’t grown in a week and knowing the conditions I was giving them I expected them to be getting huge. So I got in closer to take a look and at first what I saw (on the peppers, watermelon, and on some tomatoes) was that they were infested with green aphids!!! This took me by surprise as the problem was already in a pretty hectic stage. At first, after this discovery, I went to each and every plant on my balcony and checked them entirely squishing all the little buggers I could find. I went about the pest problem in this way for a few hours until I felt like I had done a good job; then I decided to brew up some natural pesticide in my kitchen. For the first pesticide I blended garlic cloves, extremely hot peppers (the colorful ones) from my garden, lemon rind, and any other thing I thought would make a smelly burning cocktail. After brewing this I tested it out on one of my cilantro plants (that was fully infested) and gave it a day to rest. The next day the plant looked fine but this concoction I had made I think may have been too strong. I didn’t want to spray it all over my plants. I decided to brew up a simple pesticidal soap using one tablespoon of Dr. Bronner’s Eucalyptus soap to about a quart of water (to this I mixed a little amount of my earlier cocktail) and made a stinky soapy natural spray. I used this all over the marigolds (which were infested with hundreds of black spider mites I believe and also these slithery insects that were pretty big). The next day It looked like the potion had worked pretty well as a large majority of the pests were dead. The aphids turned a yellow dried-up looking color and the little spider mites just looked dead. I decided this spray was probably pretty safe and effective so I began spraying it on all of my plants. Now two days later it looks like the pest problem is getting in check as the plants are just beginning to come back to life looking a little healthier (at least a few of the bell peppers have already grown dramatically).
Along with the three pests already mentioned there were also tiny red ‘spider mite’ looking creatures (though less in numbers) that I found on some of my plants. I think the main thing is these plants were ready to be transplanted probably 2 wks ago and since there were just sitting in such a crowded environment for too long a pest problem broke out. Now I have the plants spaced all over the balcony as I do not trust putting them so close together.
2. Finishing the Arugula (harvesting it all as it begins to bolt)
Last weekend we harvested about a thousand grams of arugula from the garden that was used to make endless salads over the weedend and throughout the week. It was the best arugula as I like it spicy and this stuff was just at the perfect spice. Perfect timing too, as now the arugula is bolting and beginning to flower (making it not good for consumption any more); this happens due to the fact that we live in zone 10 and it gets very hot mid-day causing plants to mature early and bolt (this was expected). Now there are arugula plants bolting and I have yet to take them out of the garden. I think I will be replacing them with spinach that is highly resistant to bolting. I want to plant lettuce but this spot during this time of the year it would never work. I am contemplating attempting to grow some butter lettuce in the shade of my tomato plants as I think they keep the temperatures under them at a cooler degree and it may be possible to grow them is their shade. This would be an excellent example of interplanting/companion planting.
Since my family is largely vegetarians (or mainly eat vegetables) we eat many salads and the arugula salad as been so much fun for us all this whole past month. The best salad we made had an arugula base, it was covered in strawberries, mango’s, and peaches with walnuts and pine nuts and only the lightest lemon and olive oil dressing. It was godlike eating it outside on a hot summer day under the canopy looking at my garden. Everyone (my family and friends who were there) could not believe how good the salad was!!
3. I went out to the garden today to check on the vegetables. There are a few items that concern me. One is the fennel and dill. The dill is flowering which is just fine as the flower should start attracting beneficial insects to my garden (ones that eat the pests). But the fennel next to the dill is hurting. It looks very sick and out of all six fennel plants only one has really taken to full foliage; all of the others look sick. I’m ok with having the dill flower and not using it for culinary purposes as much but it would be nice if the fennel starts to take hold as I would like to use it for cooking. I think what I am going to do is make a concoction of the fish emulsion and feed it to my garden early tomorrow morning. It says to feed the plants every three weeks and it has been about that time.
I was looking at the zucchini plants and I have a few zucchini coming in. One is already pretty big. The powdery mildew completely went away with the application of the milk-fungicide. Although taking a closer look it looks like it might be coming back in the bottom of one of the plants. So today I am going to make another magic milk potion and spray the plants again. I also noticed a little powdery mildew coming on one of my tomato plants which I will put to rest ASAP!!
4. Start planting seeds in garden for next season.
5. Take a closer look at the watermelon and found out it was a pumpkin. Haha that was pretty funny. I though it was a watermelon because that was the row I took it from but than as it got huge I wanted to look up what the major pests for watermelons are and as I was looking it up I noticed that the plants I thought were watermelons were actually pumpkins and vice-a-versa. So now I have a huge pumpkin plant on my balcony one which I had thought was going to produce watermelons. ~~~~Ridiculousness
6. Ripening of the peaches
The peach tree is booming. The three peach cluster is really ripening; they are all looking a dark ruby red. While I only have three I think they will be the best peaches ever. I should probably prune but for some reason I just don’t like messing with things like that. I feel that the tree can maintain itself and like my no-dig garden, I will allow nature to do the process. There have been no signs of pests on it although I am worried as it is located on the same balcony experiencing heavy pest issues.
7. Back row failure --planning for Fall
So the back row of my garden is truly being wasted. I planted these bootleg flowers that I don’t even like and the soybean plant is producing the weakest fruits I have ever seen. I decided to turn the back plot into a place for pumpkins and watermelons to grow, while trellising some pea plants on the trellis. It still needs to be developed but basically where it is right now is not sufficient.
Besides the back row there are a lot of other things I am planning for the fall garden. First my parents love cut flowers like zinnias and have asked me if I could grow some for them. I am going to try to grow these flowers and we will see what happens. Hopefully I can figure out some companion plants to mix in with them, maybe some sort of food hopefully or another flower that is attractive and attracts beneficial insects.
8. Worm bin at second level!!! First ingredients pulp from new juicer
My worms have finally eaten most of the newspaper I gave them a month ago and turned it into a fine dark rich compost. So it is time to put the second worm bin on and begin adding food to it. After buying a new juicer and juicing some crazy concoctions I am using all of the pulp and feeding it to the worms. After one day they are already at work eating the pulp. Also there are none of those awful vinegar flies I experienced last time I put food in (which was too much food for the worms). So finally it is working properly and I can’t wait to begin recycling all of my food waste. A funny story related to this is last week my friend Ben and I took a basic knife skills cooking class and without knowing who my knife cutting partner was I ended up having full and deep conversations with her. I later discovered she was a pretty famous actress and her pretty famous husband singer, writer, comedian. Anyways at the end of the class her husband was collecting all of the vegetable scraps in a large trash bag and I asked him what it was for when he told me he feeds it to the worms. I was shocked, they have a worm bin too! I explained to him my issue with my worm bin and he said give it time and a tip is to blend all of the food scraps so it is easier to break down for the worms. That was great advice that I have taken with me and am sure it will help for the future.
9. Take More Photos
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