10-26-2019
Another rainy day in the Tropical Druid
Garden.
Thus, you work indoors on what you can
until there is a break. If you read any gardening book, at some point
they are going to say if you let water get on the leaves you invite
fungus, mildew and mold. Unless you want to put an umbrella over
every plant or grow everything in a greenhouse, you can't keep the
water off the plants when it rains but there are a few things you can
do if you have to water which is a necessity in the dry season.
Normally in SoFl, the dry season just happens to be the growing
season. That is another of Mother Nature's jokes but it really does
serve a purpose. Abundant water would cause the native plants to grow
to enormous sizes and they can't support that kind of growth in the
overheated days of summer when the rainy season hits. The soil here
is called sand and it can't support that kind of growth, either, so
your plant would simply fall over. All conditions would be off.
Now you have three choices for your
garden, drip irrigation which I have not had the courage to try
though I have two kits bought on sale and soaker hoses. The problem
with both systems is our well water is high in iron, sulfur and
calcium which will clog the drip irrigation system and coat the
soaker hose clogging it.
That brings us to number three, my
favorite and what I was working on today. At Harbor Freight I get a
cheap bag of 6 drip irrigation stakes that hold a liter bottle for
under 5.00 and a tube of gasket maker in clear. At the local dollar
type store I get a bag of glass drops for, well, a dollar. At
Michaels I have found Washi tape 5 for a dollar in narrow in the
front bins. Then I recover the liter bottles that the fizzy water
comes in from BJ's.
ALERT.... SHE IS CRAFTING AGAIN.
Make certain the holes are there in the
stakes because I got a bag with no holes. The water is not coming out
without holes. I used my dremel tool to fix that. The problem I have
had with the bottles is they are too loose in the holder most of the
time and fall over and out. So, since Washi tape is the right
thickness and stretches, I find a double loop around the bottle neck
makes it nice and tight in the holder. I remove the label from the
bottle and use the gasket maker to attach the glass drops in a
pattern to the bottle. I let it dry over night. Warning here, they
with slide and fall off so do one side at a time. Then everyday with
the hose on jet, I fill the bottles, drop them in the stake and no
water on my leaves.
Deploying the made ones into the veggie
pots was today's achievement. I also snipped the support line from
the mother strawberry to its baby because it was killing its fruit.
One thing you must always consider with a plant, it has limited
energy. If it puts out runners, then you get no fruit. The fruit is a
seed and the runner is a baby plant. It chooses one or the other.
If it puts out leaves at the base and
sides like a grape, it is not going to grow from the top. You will
have a bush. So in the case of the grape vine, leave a single leaf
on each side growth and cut the rest off as it is just sapping
strength from your vine. At least that is what the experts in wine
country say. Now if I can just find a seed in those witches' finger
grapes I will be happy. This is kind of like dead heading roses to
get one large flower instead of a cluster of small flowers.
Which brings me to suckers on tomatoes.
I firmly believe in cutting them off and rooting them. You then have
a long season of tomato plants. I have left them on and the
indeterminate varieties do not seem to lose any production
capability but the determinate ones, may. It all depends on the
variety.
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