Comments Off July 29th, 2010

Growing Cucumbers And Tomatoes In The Summer Season?

In Southern California, this is the month (May) for sowing beans, corn, cucumbers, okra and squash and for putting in pepper plants and eggplant. Tomatoes grow well in all West Coast climates except the Fog Belt. Last year, however, was a sad one for the Pacific Coast tomato grower and the reasons are numerous as well as contradictory.

Delay planting tomatoes until nights are warm, for cold nights will cause bud drop. Unless the home garden is very large, tomato plants should be pruned and trained-up stakes or against a fence; an unpruned, sprawling plant takes up a great deal of room. Pruning means nipping out the side shoots at least as far up the stem as the third cluster of bloom. These side shoots start just above the place where leaf meets stem.

When planting, remove the lower leaves and sink two-thirds or more of the stem into the ground. Roots will grow from the nodes from which the leaves were removed. Soak the plants well and do not water again until the ground seems dry, usually from four to six days.

When the plants are well established, which will probably take three or four weeks, irrigate the ground well about 18 inches from the stem. Overhead watering and constant watering make soft plants, and soft plants drop their blossoms. Norton Stone is a good tomato variety for southern California.

After last summer’s constant cool fog, I shall never again (unless I have a change of heart) try to grow cucumbers, tomatoes, corn or any beans except Windsor and Scarlet Runner and I shall stick to two varieties of squash which do not rot at the blossom end. Golden Summer Crookneck and Italian Marrow, a neat, small, dark-skinned vegetable marrow squash. Even my peas got powdery mildew last summer and became infected with mosaic from strolling aphids. However, in my compost-fed kitchen garden, parsley grows more than 2 feet high and does not bolt to seed, oakleaf lettuce is 14 inches across and carrots are straight, tender and more than a foot long.

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