One plant bites the dust

So, I got the imitation vanilla extract today. It's supposed to drive out squash bugs. Worth a try.  Went to apply it tonight. Ran one bottle through the irrigation system. Mixed another bottle with water in a hand spray bottle and did more targeted surface spraying. That was all the irrigating and such I did tonight. Want to leave that on the surfaces overnight to try and drive the squash bugs out. Figured running it through the irrigation system would help remove them from the whole garden, rather than displace them until next heavy irrigation or rain. Though I will repeat the process a few times over the next few weeks.

All this came a little too late for my largest pumpkin plant. It bit the dust today. Had to pull and remove it to avoid any further contamination. 

So far, most of the plants still look good. North side seems hardest hit while south side seems untouched until now. Still treated that side to avoid problems and displacement to there. Still have a couple of decent size pumpkins forming in the north garden. 

The garden has survived the worst heat of the summer rather admirably, with tomatoes still on the vine and new growth progressing. Some of the corn looks a little paler green but not bad up close. Ears are still ripening. Now, temps are forecast to begin dropping a bit after today. This was the last triple digit day on the current forecast for the year. The garden has done better after this point for the past two years, so no reason to expect differently this year. The difference being that the garden is already doing so much better this year than previous years.  

Problems and improvements

Having some problems with some of the pumpkin plants. I know I have a minor issue with squash bugs. Been scouting and destroying them as I find them but nothing compared to last year. No signs of squash vine borers that I can see. Maybe it's the heat, maybe inconsistent watering for a few days. Most appear to be recovering now. Have a few pumpkins growing. First giant bit the dust. Bummer. For safety, going to pull one vine and toss it in the trash. Not happy, it's a giant variety. However, I have more of those planted. If I get a couple of good size ones grow to maturity this year, I'll have plenty of seeds for next year.

Aphids aren't a huge problem this year but I do see some signs of them. Just got a shipment of ladybugs. Release them with daughter this evening. This is actually second shipment. First shipment arrived via UPS, all dead. With 2 day shipping, UPS managed to keep them sitting out in the sun enough to kill them. I even met the truck at the driveway and the box was hot to touch when they guy handed it to me. 

Ordered more mantis egg cases. They're good for lots of pests, including tomato hornworms, squash bugs and aphids. 

Hoping to get colonies of both ladybugs and mantises going by the end of the season this year, so they will already be in place in spring next year. Already have lacewings and wasps returned from last year. 

Fixed pump, dead pumpkin

Fixed the well pump yesterday. Problem was the piping before the pump. Installed a metal tap for the fertilizer injector and it's working much better. 

The 50 lb bag of iron sulfate came yesterday. Applied a good amount of that and used sulfuric acid in the fertilizer injector last night. 

Having problems with some of the pumpkins. My first giant pumpkin died off. Looked like the vine broke. However, other leaves have been showing signs like they're being attacked by something but haven't been finding more squash bugs. No signs evident of vine borers. Have to keep watching. It's almost all on the edges of the garden, so maybe daughter stepped on some of them? Or just the heat. 

I need to replace some of the soaker tubing. In some places I used porous tubing and it's not working very well at all. Get some more of the other type later in the week. 

Some of the newer plantings are looking really good now. Coming up quickly. Giant blue corn, pumpkin and green beans. 

Found out the timer is restricting water flow too much in the back. Okay for the front, which covers a lot less space. For the back, need to get a high flow timer or split things into more zones. For the moment, I'm just running irrigation manually, which works well. I am leaning toward making more zones. Easier to maintain water pressure for flooding areas that way. Figure out configuration later.  

Broken pump?

It's possible the impeller on the well pump is shot. Tried running it today as a test and it wouldn't build pressure. Have to give it another try tomorrow, do some troubleshooting. Problem may not be at the pump but somewhere else. Go through the troubleshooting steps before exchanging it. If I have to, at least it's still under basic warranty and it won't touch the extended warranty I purchased. 

Until I get it running again, I'm back to municipal water. Glad I have both. Also glad for timing. I'm at a point where I don't need to water quite as often as before. I have ground cover in most places and deeper roots formed for larger plants. 

For the moment, the ground still seems fairly well saturated from the rain on Thur night, so watering hasn't been required. Check it tomorrow and see how that's holding. 

Got the water timer exchanged today. Home Depot only had one in stock, out of the box and loose on the shelf. Happily, the woman at the desk let me trade them straight out. 

If I have to, I'll use municipal water through this week and exchange the pump on Fri for a 1 HP instead of the 3/4 HP I have.  

No auto pilot

Rained heavily last night. Rain got inside one of the water timers and now the display is blank. Try letting it dry out and see if it works. 

Some of the corn is now up to my chin. Earliest and smallest (grows about 4 ft tall) has silked and has lots of little ears of corn. They should grow bigger. Should have corn in another week or so! Then I'll leave the stalks in pace as shade for other crops and trellises for green beans, which are starting to climb.

Lots of tomatoes on the vine, many approaching eating size but still green. Not guessing when they'll ripen because I planted too many varieties. 

Onion stalks are beginning to brown, so almost ready to harvest. Hope they're bigger than last year. If not, I'm giving up on red onions. 

Lettuce has bolted. I keep pulling it up and feeding it to the rabbits but even they are showing less interest in it. Have to pull the rest this weekend. 

Pumpkin plants are getting huge! Haven't spotted any new pumpkins but haven't examined that closely. I'm letting the bees do their thing with pollinating, except for giants. 

The last set of sunflower seeds is growing in the front yard. Now that I have irrigation to that area, need to plant more sunflowers near the back gate. 

I ordered a 50 lb bag of iron sulfate. Should be here in a few days. Have to treat some areas heavily but that bag should still last a while. 

It's actually beginning to look like I will have enough produce to either can or sell some this year! Depends on quality, of course. Wait and see.

Auto pilot!

The irrigation system is finally on auto pilot! I had gotten one water timer a few days ago, programmed and installed it for the front yard. First as a test and second because of the new grass and flower seeds needing more frequent but less intense watering. Since I'm asleep (or this week in class) during the day, the timer was best used in the front first. That timer worked really well, so today I got another one for the back yard and garden. 

So, I currently have the front yard set to run at 5 AM, 12 Noon and 8 PM for 30 minutes each time. Have the garden set to run at 4 AM and 9 PM for one hour each time. Give things a couple of days and adjust as necessary. 

I took my time and chose the timer carefully. Had to deliver full flow because I can adjust rate in other ways. Had to have at least three possible schedules per day, preferably more. So, this timer had those features. Up to four possible schedules per day possible. Has an LCD screen with a cover. (That's really good because LCD screens degrade with sunlight.) Supposed to last a year on only one 9 V battery. Though I do buy cheap batteries, so I'm not expecting a full year. Long as they last a couple of months, I'll be happy. Just want them to work consistently until after vacation in the next month. The brand is DIG Corp. Same as a lot of other drip equipment I've been buying and really happy with. 

Now up to at least four pumpkins, possibly more I haven't seen yet. Not bad for June! For the most part, things are looking really good. I have lost a couple of the saplings in the front yard. Think to salt, because they were getting enough water. Maybe they'll recover but I don't know yet. 

I still need to spread more gypsum. Have a lot left which I haven't dissolved yet. Get to it in the next week.

Short update

Just a quick update.

The fertilizer injector and solution I mixed up worked great! Much of the iron settled to the bottom of the bucket but that's okay. With repeated mixtures, I figure more of it will decay and will be applied gradually. 

It had quite a dramatic effect. Overnight, yellowed leaf edges greened up again. Tomato and corn plants grew several inches taller. The whole south side of the garden is covered with sprouts. Corn, pumpkin and more. Mature pumpkin plants are vining at a highly accelerated rate. Sunflowers in the front yard are looking much better. 

Tonight, I extended the 1/2" poly tubing to the southwest fence and the far west yard. Need to wait until I get paid, then get more mini sprinklers and I can then plant those areas after I flood them a couple of times to dissolve the sodium and help increase acidity. Going to try the inexpensive sprinklers first. Know they'll work in some areas but not sure overall. Only way to know is trial and error.

Fertilizer injector

Configured the fertilizer injector today. Works just as I planned! 

This was something I could not find plans for, so figured it out for myself. Construction was simple and easy. I just drilled a hole in the PVC suction pipe leading to the well pump. Inserted a 1/4" barb connector. Attached a short length of tubing, about 1" long. Connected a flow control valve, then a few feet more tubing. Loose end of the tubing drops into a 5 gal bucket of fertilizer solution. Turn on the pump, open the control valve and suction from the pump draws the fluid from the bucket and mixes it with the irrigation water. 

It is not fully automatic but has to be manually turned on. 

A few considerations for this. One is that I am careful to turn the fertilizer off and let the clear water run for a long time after. Clears the pipes and reduces chances of plant burn. Another is, while the solution I use is not strong enough to burn skin, nobody should be walking through the sprinklers while it's running to avoid respiratory irritation. And it should not run at all while it's windy. In short, this should not be on a fully automatic basis. 

One benefit to this is that, even at low concentration, the acid will help remove and prevent mineral buildup in the drip system. 

Any way, mixed a carefully constructed batch of soluble fertilizer, iron and sulfuric acid and applied that this evening. This mixture fertilizes, adds iron, counters sodium and adjusts pH all at once! So, I plan on doing at least one acid application per week for the time being. I could conceivably adjust the acidity of all the irrigation water all the time but think I'll try this approach first.

It's really cool that fertilizing will no longer take a long time with the hose sprayer. Instead, turn a couple of knobs and the whole yard and garden are fertilized!

What's even more cool is the price. Since I had the bucket, tubing, connectors and fertilizer compounds, the whole thing at this moment was free! And only took a few minutes of work. 

Much improved!

So, figured out what I was doing wrong with the well pump. I did devise a filter for the foot valve which is working rather effectively. I love nylon netting! However, kept losing prime. Then figured out I had to maintain pressure after the pump, not just before. (May sound naive to people experienced with pumps but I'm new to this. Makes sense but I didn't think about it before.) So, changed the setup a bit. Still on manual but will automate after next paycheck. Split the output from one 1" pipe out to two 1/2" pipes. Doing pretty good. Separate filters for front and back yard lines. 

I am not being conservative with my current water use. Still in the process of flushing sodium downward. It's working but takes time and lots of water. So does establishing new grass and crops. Getting there, though. 

Now over 100 corn stalks, 15 tomato plants, can't count the pumpkin sprouts, see lots of green bean sprouts coming up, onions look much better than last year and dill is doing great! The few carrots which grew have grown faster than ever. Try another crop later this year. Noted the giant yellow corn is coming up and the giant blue corn planted last week is already sprouting! Nice! If all corn planted grows, I'll have over 200, maybe 300 corn stalks in the garden this year. Half of that giant varieties.

Pollinated the first female pumpkin flower this morning. Earliest ever. Looks like a giant variety, with over four months to grow until Halloween! Awesome!

So, with the well pump now working properly, my next project will be to work on setting up an automated fertilizer and acid injection system. I can do that with supplies on hand. Don't think it wise to use it while the yard is occupied, since I have multiple sprinklers involved. I can use it to balance the PH but not much to acidify outright. So, a more gradual approach will be necessary. That's okay, long as the water isn't alkaline. It's already much better than municipal water. Think I'll do a comparison tomorrow. 

Digging in some plants today, found a large number of earthworms! These were nowhere near where I had inserted worm cocoons I had purchased, so it's a really good sign! Daughter picked some of them up and intends to start a worm farm. 

Faster and faster

Really tired from the night at work. Then, after work, had to go sign papers for the refinanced loan on the house, which drops the payment by about $75 a month. Not a huge amount but not insignificant. House payment was already low by today's average.

Then had to shop for truck parts. Again. Be taking a nap, then working on the truck today. Blah.

Still having well pump issues. It's working but still too much sand getting in the system, blocking the check valve open, so I'm losing prime. Have to devise a better filter system. 

Only real problem there is that I can't put things on auto pilot. Have to do it all manually. Still, the results are so far removed from anything that has come before as to be nearly miraculous. 

First corn crop is approaching chest high now. Few stalks are over 1" diameter. Giant pumpkin plants are actually becoming giants. Waiting for some female flowers, which are forming and should bloom in the next few days. Tomato plants are 3 times the size of this time last year and flowering already. Really hoping to see tomatoes soon. Huge number of assorted melon vines getting larger daily. No melons yet. More flowers growing in front of the house than have grown since I moved in and probably for years before I moved in. Most things look as green as I had been hoping for all along. 


Lettuce is getting ready to bolt but I already planted some other crops in that section. In fact, the whole garden is now planted at this point. May add a few more companion plants but no more major crops until fall. Unless something just doesn't grow. Right now, that's not looking like a problem in any large areas. 


The well water had too many minerals in it to be good for the pool. Not harmful but ugly. The more I ran the filter and the more sunlight it was exposed to, the darker brown the water got. Eventually, it rather looked like mud. So, I drained the pool into the garden. Now going to go ahead and fill it with municipal water. Still need supplies to clean the pool out. Lots of sand and clay tracked in by kids covering the bottom. Oh, well.

 

Desert wetland

Third pump's the charm?

Got the new pump up and running today. It works great! Pressure and flow rate are consistent. Pressure is better than the outdoor faucet!

First order of business was filling the new pool for my daughter. Pool holds about 1000 gals. Did that in about 2 hours or less. 

Planted new grass in the front yard, along with excess giant blue corn, green beans, giant pumpkin and more flowers. 

In the garden, planted more flower seeds, cucumbers, multiple varieties of peppers and giant watermelon. 

Then flooded front and back rather thoroughly. By this time, my yard is becoming a desert wetland. Going to continue in that direction unless I see evidence that too much water is becoming a problem. 

Sodium is still an evident problem but becoming less so. Soil pH is improving, indicating sodium is being bound up or counteracted. Without new seeds sprouting, I'm up to 14 tomato plants now. Simply because some plants which had appeared dead revived and are growing. More corn and pumpkin plants coming up daily. Flower count is slowly increasing. 

Still more to do. Haven't gotten the southwest and west sections hooked up to irrigation or planted yet. Try to get that done tomorrow. 

New well pump

Got a new well pump today from Harbor Freight. The utility pump was doing okay. I had figured out the pressure balance fairly decently, though it did lack somewhat, it was working for the moment. Then the dog got to it. Long story short, she managed to knock the pump over and it ran dry for some time, until the impeller was trashed. Dog is now much more limited in her movements.

So, got the new one today. Went up on the HP slightly. Not up and running yet. Ran out of certain fittings, so have to pick them up in the morning. One thing I was apprehensive about was noise level. This pump had bad reviews for that on their site. However, I found it to be quite quiet enough. Can only hear it a short distance and may not be able to hear it more than a couple of feet once it's enclosed. Good deal for the price. Hope it puts out enough pressure. Flow rate is up to 900+ gph. 

So, I think fifteen mins 3-4 times a day should do the trick for front and back yards. May not need that much. Have to wait and see. 

Some things are growing great now! 

First corn planting is growing so thick the plants may have to be thinned. Seems a shame, since it just wouldn't grow last year at all. Biggest concern is it shading lower plants too much. Doesn't seem a problem so far. Wait and watch.

Tomato plants are getting larger and some are flowering. That didn't happen until much later last year. So, I'm hoping for tomatoes in the next few weeks. 

Lettuce looks wonderful but temps have climbed into the 90's. It will bolt soon. 

Several pumpkin plants have gained really good size now and later plantings are sprouting. Melon vines are also getting bigger, though I haven't seen any flowers or fruit just yet. 

Planted giant corn and spinach (heat tolerant) yesterday. Planted green beans to climb the corn. Need to try planting more cucumbers. That will be the only thing I build actual trellises for this year, I think. 

Found out the well water here is high in Nitrates. That was great news. Seems like other nutrients are becoming more available, so are already present. Just been held back by the Sodium until now. May fertilize more but only in very small and gradual amounts. Too hot to fertilize or do any more pH adjustments for now. Just have to let nature do her job on those things.