Gah! Wormy radishes!

[laundry_queen]

Well, I had to find out the hard way about wormy radishes. At least we had a harvest of some of them before they were taken over. They bolted too because we've been having really warm weather for an extended period of time (unusual for us). So from what I've read, it looks like next year I will have to rotate the raised beds and be sure to place some netting over the radishes so the flies can't lay their eggs. I've never had this happen before (I've grown radishes in the past with no problems) and I'm not happy.

I've also read that planting radishes in the fall is better. I may try that. We planted late this year and my daughter wanted to try growing them so we planted some. It may have been too warm for them all along. We cleaned all the radishes out of the garden last night. I don't think I'll replant. I'll see if I can find something else to put there...any ideas? We usually get our first frost in September.

My curly watercress bolted too. As did all my cilantro. So far the lettuce is okay (and the romaine looks beautiful!) Everything else is doing really good. I even have some little zucchinis growing...crossing my fingers that they turn out (I've had them shrink on me when they get to a certain size and I read that's due to lack of pollination). I also have some adorable purple hot peppers...at least the peppers and tomatoes are loving the warmth.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. I had to pull up my garlic far earlier than intended,

and I actually had small (1/4 inch long or so) yellowish worms burrowed in to several heads. I'd never seen that before. It was a pathetic crop all around, only about a quarter as much as I harvested last year, even though I planted twice as much. I'm wondering if I can figure out a way to plant this year in shallow tray beds in a way I can bring the heads in and have them overwinter in my garage to at least stay above freezing.

Still only teeny tiny cukes starting up, but I've got a watermelon that's about 2 inches across so far. I didn't get the rain we were supposed to have today, so I guess I'll be out watering again soon.

[laundry_queen]

2. Sounds like something similar

I've heard similar worms can affect any root crop. My bulb onions are planted in another raised bed, I'm curious to see how they will look when I pull them up. My carrots are definitely slower growing than I thought they would be...I sure hope they aren't affected. I was planning on planting some garlic this fall...I'll keep in mind to keep it out of the bed with the worms.

One thing I read is that those worms are worse if you have too much compost that hasn't 'composted' enough, or conversely, sandy soil lacking in nutrients. My dad filled my raised beds with pure compost from a local landscaping company, so I wonder if it wasn't composted enough. There were quite a few pieces of wood in it. He initially told me it was a soil/compost mix so I didn't do anything to amend it. I have some black dirt that I would've added had I known.

I'm impressed with your watermelon. I live too far north to grow 99% of melons. I keep scouring the seed catalogs for 'super duper extra early' watermelons, but all they have are early cantaloupes. It doesn't matter - I don't have enough garden space anyway.

hope you get some rain soon. It's hot and dry here so I'll be out watering today too.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. Don't be too impressed, I started with a store bought seedling.

We picked up seedling watermelon and honeydew in addition to the things I planted from seed. The watermelon vines planted on the hugelkultur mound are spreading nicely, but the honeydew, which are in a raised bed, aren't doing well at all. The pumpkin, just in a regular bed in the ground, is somewhere in between, even though it was started from seed.