You Grow Girl™

We have been blessed with rain. Under normal circumstances I would never say such a thing, but it has been such a relief to NOT have to water the plants twice a day. My usual routine, especially now that everything is getting so big, is to haul can after can of water out onto the deck to water the pots -- twice a day (morning and late day). Due to a lack of outdoor plumming, we used to have a ridiculous setup for the hose that involved unscrewing the shower head and attaching a special device to then hook up the hose which had to be hauled inside from the deck and then detached afterwards, the hose wound back up and everything put away. It was unfortunate, but with so many tomatoes it was worth the effort over hauling can after can after sloshing, spilling can. Well earlier this year I bought a filter for the showerhead that dechlorinates the water. It's been GREAT for my skin, and the potted indoor plants do well after a light shower underneath it, but unfortunately the new arrangement makes it impossible for me to do the usual hose thing.

So it's back to the water can routine. It hasn't been all bad because my neighbour and friend J is growing plants this year so we're sharing the task and watering each others' plants. But it is still alot of work. So the rain we had a few days ago was a blessing. It didn't just rain, it poured for two days. Just when I thought the sky had nothing more to give, it rained again. J and I had the same idea and both went out to collect some of the rain into containers for later use. We don't have a rainbarrel so we just got together all the buckets and containers without holes we could find and set them out to catch the rain. It's been over a day since it rained and I still haven't had to water a single thing. And when I do, the water will be right there available for instant use without the hassle.

Peppers

Message to Beate: Umm the jalapenos you gave me aren't jalapenos... they're some kind of longish, thin hot pepper. This comes as a bit of a relief to me because I was recently looking up pepper plant info and came across a photo of a jalapeno plant -- of which my plant had no resemblence. My plant has small, thinish leaves. The jalapeno had lush, big leaves. A few days ago when I was out on my morning inspection, I noticed that the developing pepper was WAY too long and thin to be a jalapeno. In fact it looked exactly like the mystery hot peppers I grew last year. So I'm happy to report that it's not me, and my plant is exactly the way it is supposed to be. In fact it may be too early to say for certain but I think that spraying the espsom salt solution may have made a big difference. The leaves are alot greener looking... but that could be the cooler weather, less intense sun, and the recent abundance of rain. Another improvement can be seen in the number of flowers that have set fruit in the last few days. I'm going to pretend it was the epsom salts and leave it at that.

I have an urgent call for help for my neighbour J to anyone who has pepper experience. She is growing green peppers, 'California Wonder', and most of them have had some small holes appearing on the leaves. Some of the newer leaf growth has come in stunted and slightly twisty with a bit of yellow discolouration. It definitely looks like an insect problem but we haven't seen anything like flea beetles in the plants. The only strange insects we saw can be described as extremely tiny (almost microscopic), wormy-like (but not worms), insects that move about on the leaves very quickly. I have never seen such a thing and can't identify in any of my trusty books. Anyone know what the insect is or what the problem is? She sprayed some insecticidal soap on one plant as a tester -- and I have to say that since the heavy rains the plants are looking a bit better so perhaps the bugs were washed away somewhat. I don't know.

And speaking of strange mystery troubles... I have one basil plant, a Thai basil that is growing in a VERY large container with a tomato plant and a two other Thai basil plants. It has a strange yellow discolouration in the leaves that I don't think is caused by an insect or by a nutrient deficiency. What is this? I am growing 13 basil varieties (and several more plants) and all of my plants are lush, green and happy. I've had the best basil crops ever this year. Yet this one plant is having trouble. Aside from the yellowing of the leaves, the rest of the plant is lush with alot of thick foliage. It is in the hottest part of the deck, but I don't think water or lack of is the problem. Could it be ozone damage (caused by the nasty smog and pollution we've had this year) or something else?