August #24.1: No water for old men

Ah yes! Nothing hits harder than an August update… in October.

As usual, I yeeted myself on vacation, and as usual, I went to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Shocking, I know. But I am basically skipping the entire month. Let’s roll with the update.

the irrigation situation

There is no water. There is no other way to say it: this year, there is literally no water. For almost the whole month, there was no rain. It started raining only when I left for vacation. This is probably the number-one reason I have only a handful of winter squash.

The plants are not dead, but they are not thriving either. I have been hand-watering every day, but temperatures have been over 30 degrees every day, and the air is very dry. The plants are dropping new fruit because of heat and water stress, and I am praying for those four survivors to make it.

On the other hand, there are patisons. And what a nice surprise. This weird combination of squash and zucchini is actually doing great in this weather. I was able to harvest a few of them already. They are great deep-fried in breadcrumbs or as a “hashbrown”. I will definitely grow them again next year.

And, as a last spoiler for the melon update, the melons are slowly finishing, and I believe there is still enough time for some zucchini.

I chose some green variety that should produce very little cucurbitacin as a precaution. I don’t know how warm September will be, and I already know yellow zucchini can go bitter during colder September nights.

the success of succession

And we will stay in the hydroponic area. Right next to the melon (now zucchini) spot, there are cucumbers.

As you can see, the plants I transplanted in July are already producing a lot of fruit. I will not top these plants yet, because I want to see how long we can pull them through the fall.

It’s good to see that I can grow two plants in one box just fine. The water consumption, of course, goes up, but that can be mitigated with a float valve and a large reservoir, which I plan to install next year. But first, I have to clean up the mess behind my shed for the reservoir.

The second round of potatoes is going strong, but I noticed a different pattern in the growth. There are only one or two stems from each seed potato now, in comparison with the spring sowing, where there were three or more stems.

the stock option

I know, it feels like a LinkedIn to-do list, “How to get 1000 customers by afternoon”, until now. But now we get to the juicy part. Tomatoes! And have you looked at these Minibuses?

I can already spot some issues with the setup, but I think the tomato succession after garlic was the right call. Otherwise, the plot would either be used for something like zucchini or lettuce, maybe some kohlrabi. But I think planting tomatoes after garlic is a great option. Sure, the soil needs a little bit of fertilizer, but with some dwarf varieties, there is still plenty of time.

On the other hand, while my Costoluto Fiorentino is finally ripening, I should have topped them sooner, probably by one or two weeks. The fruits are huge, but that might be the issue in the end. Smaller fruits mean less energy needed to ripen. These huge beefsteak tomatoes need a lot of time to show color.

But when they do, it’s beautiful.

I have increased the solution’s EC because I really want them all to finish in time. I use these mostly for cooking and canning, so I can cook during winter, and I don’t really care about the thicker skin that higher EC caused me before.

And on the other end of showing color, we have the Atomic Grape tomatoes. I would love to say they taste great, because they do, but I am really confused by the color. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to tell when to pick them… and well… yes, I can’t. Like, look at this.

What is this?! Is it ripe enough? Yes? No? Should it taste like this? To be honest, I did very little research into this variety or this kind of tomato. And don’t get me wrong, when you pick the right one, it’s really good. But for me, it’s something like one out of three. At least the Voyage variety is doing what’s expected. Looking hideous.

The taste of this one is very average, but it’s a great snacking tomato. You don’t need a bowl, bag, or box to carry around multiple tomatoes. And it’s meatier than a regular cherry tomato, if that’s your thing.

With the weather and conditions we have this summer, I would expect my tomatoes to ripen faster than usual, but for some reason it feels slower. The plants keep pushing out new fruit and shoots quickly, but the ripening feels sluggish. It could be heat stress, since lycopene production decreases in hot environments. Maybe the solution and salt buildup lean heavily toward nitrogen, but salt buildup is usually not this selective. I have never flushed my coco during the season because the rain usually takes care of mild washing. Still, since there is no rain, it’s possible that more nitrogen is trapped inside the coco. I will try to figure this out next year.

the palette

It’s my first time growing these “changing” peppers. It’s called “Měňavka,” literally “changeling,” because it changes color as it matures. They are bright green when very young, then turn deep purple, only to pick up either red or yellow.

The purple stage is basically a green pepper, not very interesting besides the color, and they only get some sweet taste when they reach the red or yellow stage.

I have to say, I didn’t expect the orange Habanero peppers to look so candy-like. I am used to a more wrinkly and matte surface, not shiny like this.

The taste and heat are also more subtle than I am used to. It’s sweeter, juicier, and lacks that bitter hint some people don’t like, but that’s probably connected to the lower capsaicin content. But don’t get me wrong, it still burns like hell. Just lesser hell, like the weather.

I mean, it’s kind of ironic that I hauled over 1000 L of water from home to my garden in 50 L barrels a few days before my vacation, only to watch torrential rain on the webcam from the beach. But exercise is healthy, and I threw my back out only twice. That’s a win until the next time.

P.S.: Here is a sneak peek of what’s keeping me distracted from seasonal depression these days.