Whatcha Up To???

[ErnieCopp]

Sam, Not sure pictiures will help very much as i have been surprised when they are ripe with maybe a yellow area on them as big as your hand. The yellow starts on the Blossom end and gradually moves towards the stem. But i picked one today that is solid yellow. It is still hard, so is probably good, but usually they get soft before they turn completely yellow.
The stems have not withered, so they need to be cut. I cannot thump them but perhaps that might help identify ripeness, too. The flavor is good over a wide range, also. I am going to cut the yellow one after while for dinner and if I learn anything helpful, i will post it.

If any of yours have some yellow as big as your hand, maybe see if it gives a little bit when you press it around the blossom end.

Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

Sam,
I just cut that completely yellow Persian, and that is too ripe. I like most of it, but most people would not like it that ripe, and the blossom end was only a little bit soft, so that test may not help much either.

So, pick one when it has four or five inches of yellow on it, and if that is not ripe enough just wait for more yellow to show..

You are pretty observant so perhaps you can identify a good way to tell when they are just right.

Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

Sam,
I was googling Persian melons in regards to ripening signs, and found out there are dozens, and one place said Hundreds, of different Persian melons. I looked at a few hundred pictures of different melons but did not see any like the ones from the plants that were sold to me as "Persian Melons". Some mentions of difficulty in deciding when ripe, but most of them have heavy netting. Mine have never had any netting on them, and none i saw in the pictures have the Pear shape that mine have when they are younger. I do recall having seen in the past, large round heavily netted melons that were called Persian melons, too. Muskmelons first grew in Persia and that part of the world, so i guess the name is legitimate, but these do seem to be unusual.

The one saving grace is, they do tasted good.
Ernie

 

[Mr_Yan]

yesterday I sifted two of my worm bins (vermicompost) to collect the finished compost. Today I will be digging that vermicompost around some tomatoes that are having trouble.

Later today I will be placing a concrete pier / buttress in hopes of stopping the back foundation wall of my garage from heaving out further.This will be an 8" tube filled with concrete set next to the foundation wall and going 48" into the ground. I'm not looking forward to digging this hole. This is the first of two that I am putting in.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Yan,
I have learned a lot from you other fellows so i am going to repay by making a suggestion to you. Your plan is not going to offer much resistance to the bulging in the wall, first because the only resistance will be from the backfill around the tube, and then the resistance from the round surface of the tube against the dirt. You need to have the maximum amount of hard surface to push against, to spread the contact area as wide as you can. And even then, if your dirt is wet, it will not have much resistance.
What seems to be causing the bulging? Is it the load of the building, pushing down on the footing, or is it water getting in and freezing, causing expansion?
If it is ice, the best way to stop that is to stop the water from getting in, and if your soil is rocky or sandy or provides good resitance then a wedge shaped hole with the back side sloping in at a 45 degree angle, and concrete poured directly in the hole, and against the foundation, so no soft backfill would be carrying the load might be better.

I hope this saves you a lot of futile work.

Ernie

 

[Mr_Yan]

Thanks Ernie. I'll never pass up experience from oldtimers. Unfortunately for this case I've finished one of the piers and I plan on making two. This first pier is in the center of the wall.

This is the back end of a two car garage under the gable wall. There is a crack roughly in the middle of the wall and the north end of the wall is the side heaving out away from the garage. My house is at the north end of the block and as you walk south up the block you're climbing a hill and at the end of the city block you're above the peak of my 1.5 story bungalow. Across the back of the garage the slope drops about 16 inches. The soil here is slightly slity black dirt common across much of the former grass land Midwest.

As I dug I found that the foundation wall is only into the dirt by 6 inches on the outside of the garage while the inside pad is about 16 inches above the soil line at the highest point.

This tube I put in has just under 320 pounds of ready mixed quickcrete in and around it. I dug down 45" below existing grade and had a roughly 12" diameter hole. After about 24" the soil abruptly changed from black top soil to brown clay. I removed few rocks with the largest about the size of a softball. The first 80 pound bag of concrete wend directly in the hole. I then worked the tube part way into that bloc of concrete. I then filled the rest of the tube. I capped off the tube above grade with a formed block around the tube and directly contacting the foundation wall. The form top is a 7" x7" square and it flares out to a 11" x 11" square and is about 15" tall. This block is over and around the tube.

I plan on a second pier, possibly next week. This pier will be about 2 feet from the end of the garage where the heaving is the worst. I would like to work in a cast concrete planter with this pier too and possibly the edge I need for finishing my patio.

This was the first step in several I need to do to fix my garage and finish my patio. By the end of this summer I will remove some of the top soil against the foundation wall and replace it with compacted crushed lime topped with paver blocks. The patio will then extend about 18 feet East from the garage wall.

I think I should start a thread for this epic project. And get some pics in it too.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Yan,
Okay, here is what you can expect to happen down there. Concrete has great reisistance to compression forces, so you can push straight down on it pretty hard before it will shatter. But it is not good withstanding sheer or side forces. So, the bottom part of your concrete post that is surrounded by concrete is probably not going to move very much. But when the foundated pushes against the top of the post, it will likely crack at the top of the lower concrete encasement.
The top of your post and the encasement block will remain unbroken, but as the only thing that is holding it in place is the backfill, that you do not mention but will need to place when you remove the form. So the top of the tube and upper encasement will be moved by the creeping foundation, and will move in one piece into the loose backfill.

From the description you give of the sloping topography, there may be a problem that the entire hill side slope is moving North. I suggest you contact the City or County Engineering department and ask them if they are aware of any shifting in that area. You did not say how far it was to the end of the block, but if it is 500 feet and your house is 15 feet tall, that is 3' rise per 100' . With the different soil types you mention, the clay subsoil could be lubricated by water, and the topsoil could be slipping down hill, causing your problem. If that is the case, you have a much larger problem, and very difficult to solve.

You can also see by the observations you have made, that your foundation is not down into the subsoil, so if the topsoil is moving, the foundation will go along with it. Buildings with foundations well down in the subsoil will be less likely to move.

I do hope i am wrong about this and your efforts take care of the problem. The drier your weather is, the more likely your efforts will succeed.

Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

,
Sam, I picked a Persian melon today about 3/4 yellow and it was very good. It could have been picked a little earlier or later. I will post pictures of it. You can see where i took a bite out of it, and it was very good. So i think from half to nearly full yellow will be when i pick them. Coloring up may be a bit different in your climate. I still do not know the exact name, as it is not wrinkled and rough or heavily veined, but i do know it is still my favorite tasting melon.
Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

I have been making raisins the last few days and took some pictures showing how much shrinkage takes place. A five gallon bucket full of grape clusters when picked off and sorted fill an extra large and large Stainless Steel bowls. That makes enough to fill 11 dryer screens 13" in diameter. But after all the moisture and B S is removed, there is only enough raisins to fill three square containers.
That makes me wonder how much a Washington Politician would weigh if we dried out one of them.
Ernie

 

[Mike]

That makes me wonder how much a Washington Politician would weigh if we dried out one of them.

I believe they would simply evaporate. Got a dryer big enough we can test this?

 

[Mr_Yan]

That makes me wonder how much a Washington Politician would weigh if we dried out one of them.
Ernie

The alcohol content of many of them would also make this a highly combustible process.

 

[45 ACP]

Pulled some weeds. Watered. Picked a bunch of eggplants and also a bunch of japs, and also some okra. Will probably can some more japs tomorrow.

Im down to only pepper plants, okra and eggplants, so it pretty low maintenance at this point.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Drying some tomatoes today. Cool nights have kept my tomato production down, so not enough for soup or sauce.
We tried some Okra for the first time, and liked it. Melons, squash, and Peppers producing heavy, but rest is slowing down or done.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

I didn't do anything, to dang hot (101 in the shade right now). I'll water later when the sun starts going down. It's that time of year when you can work from 0600-1000 hrs. & then it just too hot.

 

[ErnieCopp]

That extra 20 degrees you have down there makes working tough, but it sure increases your garden's production. Our summer has been a lot cooler than last year, and our production is way down.

Ernie

 

[45 ACP]

Yes, it is HOT! These spotty rains we have been having everyday makes it extremely humid too. Walk outside and you can just feel the heat radiating out of the ground and almost immediately start sweating.

 

[w_r_ranch]

[View attachment 1389I picked a Persian melon today about 3/4 yellow and it was very good.

Ernie, the big one (+12") I have thus far look nothing like that... It is much more elongated & still a very dark green. The small ones are dying off...

​

It hit 105 this afternoon... Even the eggplant & the watermelon look wilted in spite of the deep watering last night. I'm going to pick the rest of the spaghetti squash, cucumbers & tomatoes in the morning & pull up the plants so the vines can finish dying.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Sam,
That looks like mine before they start to ripen, and my vines are dying off near the roots, but if you have leaves that are alive out farther along the plant, give them a little more time. Maybe ten percent of mine have either ripened or split and spoiled, but once they start turnning, they turn fast. I saw one start a few days ago, but when i went to check on it again, it had ripened all the way and the blossom end was soft.

We are having a warm spell now, and i have had some split. If it is not deep, i just cut that out and the rest is good. How are your nutmengs doing? I have one left to ripen, but they were volunteers so got started sooner than the new seeded plants. I hope you get to taste the Persian, because i think they are the best. I am not sure but i think the white spots are sunburn, as i have those on the top of some of mine. I have not seen anything inside, in fact i do not see the spots after they ripen.

Something else i have noticed, and i see it in your picture, too. the leaves shrivel but the vines and stems still show no sign of shriveling. So i am sure the sap is still flowing out to where the plants are still growing. The weather here has been so different the last three years, i still do not know exactly what is normal.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Picked tomatoes, okra & the rest of the spaghetti squash & cucumbers, then removed all the spaghetti squash & cucumber vines from the vertical bull panel trellis'.

Vacuum packed the stuffed green/red sweet peppers that Mrs. Ranch made & froze yesterday.

Filled the bird feeders.

Removed/replaced the floodlight fixtures serving the backyard because I could no long get the replacement halogen bulbs thanks to the idiots in congress. GRRRRR!!!

 

[Rahab222]

I started pulling my tomato plants this week since I now have an infestation of stink bugs. Today I pulled all the bush tomato plants out of the 4' x 4' box which is where the stink bugs first started showing up this year. I've been squishing these by hand, but there are simply too many now and they are ruining what few tomatoes are still growing. I have seen these stupid bugs mating and I have new, red nymphs. The problem is, once I pulled all the plants out of the 4' x 4' box, I noticed a TON of red nymphs in the box's soil. At first I was squishing them, but then realized there were as many nymphs as an army of ants. Are these going to go away now that I've pulled the tomato plants or do I need to treat the soil with something to kill them? The weather has allowed me to go all organic this year, but I'm now beyond that.

I have left my new raised bed with about 12 tomato plants still in it and producing, but being hit heavily by the stink bugs/leaf hoppers. Are the bugs from the other beds I've pulled just going to transfer over to this bed, which also has stink bugs but is still producing? If so, should I just go ahead and pull all the tomato plants? I don't want this infestation to just keep going.

My purple hull peas and pinto beans are coming on and my pepper plants still look strong and viable. I think I picked my last cucumber today so those vines will be coming down tomorrow.

 

[w_r_ranch]

IAt first I was squishing them, but then realized there were as many nymphs as an army of ants. Are these going to go away now that I've pulled the tomato plants or do I need to treat the soil with something to kill them?

I have left my new raised bed with about 12 tomato plants still in it and producing, but being hit heavily by the stink bugs/leaf hoppers. Are the bugs from the other beds I've pulled just going to transfer over to this bed, which also has stink bugs but is still producing? I don't want this infestation to just keep going.

You need to spray them with an insecticide while they are in the nymph stage to control their numbers. The adults, which are very hard to kill with insecticide due to the waxy coating, will simply move to another bed & continue to feed/breed, they don't care if it is vegetable or a flowerbed.

Like I said in the IPM threads, you must interrupt the life-cycle of pests to prevail & you will not do that solely by squishing them or 'organic' means.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Picked the last Nutmeg melon today, and a couple of the bright yellow Hale/Persian crosses. Will taste them again, as they are very attractive, and if they taste good, will save some seed. Not noticed any Persians that have been crossed by the other varieties.

Saving both green meated and orange meated Nutmegs, and my first two Watermelon were the best and sweetest i have ever had, so saved seed from those for next year. Will save Persian seed, but will buy pure Hales cantaloupe seed.

Pruned the Zuke plants real hard, as they were waist high and so dense they were trapping Mildew. Still a few blossoms but all the fruit on them now is too big. Still have some Kohlrabi to pick this PM, and will pick some more Okra. Tomatoes supplying the table but not doing much for filling the freezer.

Very humid here, and feels like a tropical downpour could happen any minute, but nothing forecast.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Cut the grass... it was 104 here today.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I picked up a green Persian a couple of days ago that i accidentally knocked off the vine, and brought it in to watch, and it is beginning to color up, so if you see any color on any of yours before the vines die completely, i think it is possible they will do like tomatoes do, and keep ripening after a certain point, but i do not know yet just where that point is. When it turns yellow i will taste test it.

My vines are dying with all sizes of melons on them, so i am pretty sure a lot of them will not have time to ripen, but they just kept blooming too long, i guess.

Ernie

 

[Mike]

Still very dry here, but they are calling for chances of rain this evening til tomorrow. Need the rain for sure!