by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here. June 21, 2014 post here. June 16, 2013 post here.
More beautiful, warm weather means more happy plants. The overview:
The basil is … sprawling:
The Sun Gold tomatoes:
The Sweet Millions are at more or less the same stage:
The first little Jalapeno:
One of the two Lemon cucumbers in the southeast corner is shriveling, but only the bottom leaves. It’s been going on for more than a week. If the top starts to go we’ll cut out the plant. This is the perfect example of why I don’t like to prune to one plant per hole:
The earliest cucumbers — “Calypso”:
The Tromboncino zucchini is well taller than the door. Still no sign of powdery mildew. The milk treatment is “working”. Or it’s still just early:
Zucchini flowers:
The biggest fruit. It’s going to be dinner sometime this week:
The tomatillos. They can’t be controlled. Or contained:
The peas by the front door are doing their thing, finally:
Probably my favorite cartoon:
FlatbreadGarden 
Your Tromboncino looks fantastic!! Last Sunday I realized mine had squash mosaic virus (?!?!) so I had to pull it before my other squash plants get infected. It had weird, asymmetrical, crinkley leaves, was small and stunted, and the tendrils weren’t curling around the trellis, just flailing about. I grew it from seed indoors (Renee’s), and since I haven’t seen any of the bugs that transmit it I’m thinking the seed might have been the source of infection. Luckily I had bought a second Tromboncino start from the nursery two weeks prior and that one still looks good – I’m quite glad I did and I agree with you about not chancing it with just one plant. However, that Tromboncino is still quite small and just putting out its first tendril this week, so I’m quite envious of/impressed by yours! Great job. As for powdery mildew, I’ve only seen some on a few leaves of my Ronde de Nice squash plant, so I cut those ones off and am spraying that plant preventatively with a baking soda solution — haven’t seen any more on any other plants, so far.
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I tried baking soda the last couple of years and didn’t get excellent results. SeattleAuthor (see link in the sidebar) has been alternating baking soda and milk, with the idea that continually changing the PH will inhibit the powdery mildew. I’m going to try harvesting the Tromboncino a little earlier this year, with the hope that it won’t put as much stress on the plants.
Is it possible that your virus was soil-born? We’ve been trying to rotate plant varieties into different containers every year to avoid any weirdness like that.
Also, my Trombincino tendrils usually seem to lack purpose. It might just be the way it is.
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That’s interesting info about PM – I will try changing it up.
From what I’ve read, the strain of virus that attacks zucchini and squash is either seed-borne or transferred by infected aphids or cucumber beetles. It does seem like a poorly understood virus, though. I grow everything in containers (one raised bed and many large pots) and this is only my 2nd summer so I would be surprised if it was the soil… but it’s possible.
So if the little tendrils don’t do too much, do you need to continually tie the Tromboncino to the trellis to keep it attached?
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I use Velcro plant ties. I clip off ~4-5″ and attach the vine (just under one of the “nodes”) loosely to the trellis. It’s Velcro, so I can remove it and move it further up the vine as the plant grows. 75′ of Velcro goes a long way.
http://www.amazon.com/VELCRO-Brand-Plant-Ties-Green/dp/B005755YSQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435067779&sr=8-1&keywords=velcro+plant+tie+75%27
I also try to “encourage” the tendrils to wrap around the trellis — or each other. Whatever works.
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Great idea. Thanks!
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