Educating yourself about them is a great thing to do while you build up the courage and resources actually do it... lots of good resources out there on them, for sure.
Yep, lots of reading to do before I spring for materials. Even the small amount of reading I've done so far has shown that people have different theories and ideas about concepts and designs. Speaking of which, anyone with wicking beds deal with smelliness?
No issues there for me at all. The only thing I did "wrong" with my first one was not to provide a smooth enough bottom for the pond liner... I should have put down sand, with some nice sculpting in the corners, so that the liner wasn't stretched or stressed anyplace once it was filled with water. So yeah, my biggest piece of advice is to really take your time with the liner and get that right... if something goes wrong with it, it's a REAL pain in the ass to fix. I had a rip that I had to dig down to expose, patch, and then re-cover with everything. Not fun.
Tomato Horn Worms will absolutely mow your shit down. Despite being grossly enormous, they are nearly impossible to spot on your plants during the day. But, they have a fluorescence that can be observed. If you have a problem with them, order a blacklight off of Amazon, and hunt them down during the night. They glow a bright green under the light. Also, if you have wasps around your garden and a Horn Worm problem, let the wasps take care of it. Different wasp species will lay their eggs on Horn Worms, killing the worm, and perpetuating the cycle of Tomato Horn Worm reduction. I actually have a picture of these wasp eggs on a Tomato Horn Worm that I took a week ago, but it is so NSFW, I'd blush just posting it.
While it is kind of David Cronenberg esque, letting the wasp eggs kill the worm takes too long and your poor tomato plants get whacked. Thuricide, the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, is an "organic" and completely effective way to control them.
I have ten tomato plants. I have picked 20 of those stupid worms in the last two days. It’s like an alien infestation.
Yeah I love thuricide bt for worms too. Works great, never had an issue with the hornworms. I had more problems with tomato fruit worms in the past. Anyone deal with squash bugs? They are becoming a major problem this season. I'm getting some squash but not as much as I should. They are ruining a lot of fruit. I have picked off what bugs I can see but they are still out there. I harvested 2 deformed green zuchinni that I think I can just cut the ends off to salvage and they both had eggs on them. Barf. @binx bolling to respond to your rep about end rot on the san marzanos - I have had some start but an immediate treatment of calcium stops it. I'm bad about applying fertilizer, usually bomb the plants from space when I notice a problem. I had a touch of a spot starting on one this season but haven't noticed any more after the calcium was added. I don't get the impression that the san marzanos variety is overly susceptible to end rot, just that I suck at routine scheduled application of fertilizers. I've been happy with the fruit load on the plants. I'm not sure about other indeterminate varieties since I've only grown a handful of tomato types, but the san marzano grows a stem alternating between every leaf that produces tomatoes. These stems are also indeterminate. Sometimes I just get a long cluster of fruit, some of them almost turn into a full branch and just keep putting cluster after cluster on. I might get a picture later if that isn't clear and anybody cares.
I haven't had it long enough to develop any smells, but that was one of the reasons I went with the overflow set up that I installed. I can turn the elbow and drain or flush the reservoir as needed.
I have a small water pump that I use to drain if need be... just shive the feed hose into the water infill and works pretty fast. In other news, shit is growing.
@binx bolling the seeds were sent by a friend! I am in Oklahoma. I got them all to sprout except the Aji. It just would not pop. Definitely saving seed from what did grow, some nice peppers.
Oh look, shit’s still growing. Major fruit development happening now. I’ve started to really load up on the fertilizers, and with the heat and rain we’ve been getting, lots of progress. I might just take the season’s first harvest tomorrow night... some lettuce, swiss chard, an eggplant, a green pepper, and a cucumber. It will be a small, but highly ceremonial harvest.
I know some people were worried about the close proximity of the pepper plants... rest assured, they are doing quite well...
Some of the latest haul 2 of the bells are going into some red beans n rice and the jalapenos will go on potato skins.