Cutting My Losses with Melons and Beans – It seems the garden was healthy and lush for way too brief a time this July. The start of the month was stupendous and I was filled with expectation of two months of production before issues took over. In spite of all that I have learned in these three years of gardening, my desire to plant still surpasses my ability to maintain. And powdery mildew spores are here ready to spring into action at the slightest opening. A few weeks of June gloom was like a written invitation to move in and bring all their family members!
After the sun went down and it was cool enough to work, I somehow crawled into my packed parkway last night. First, I had to eliminate the Contender beans which had developed blight. (See how things looked on July 2. The Kentucky Wonder plants are looking good, BTW.)
Funny how when leaves become unhealthy, pests invade as well. I’d never seen such an intricate pattern of whitefly on the back of one leaf.
The blight had spread to my Scarlet Runner beans as well, but I’m madly trying to save those vines. The Contender are bush beans and had about exhausted themselves anyway.
On hands and knees I wriggled up to, and squeezed around, the White Star eggplant, and trimmed most of the Collective Farm Woman vines, which were coated in powdery mildew. Even after spraying with Neem a couple of times to beat it back, the unexpected, rare, but most welcome, rain event last weekend spread the spores like mad, and I could take it no longer. I accidentally clipped a vine with three melons on it, but managed to salvage one, though on the small side, that seemed ready. Then, I sprayed the very few leaves and vines I allowed to remain with Neem oil.
I sliced the melon open the next morning and it was perfect. The seeds were sent to me by my friend, Bob, in North Dakota, and I didn’t know what to expect. The flavor (and scent) is rather indescribable, very sweet.
I look forward to seeing if the vines rebound or if this collection is all I get. This is a short season melon, and it should have prospered. The most-needed rain, ironically, spread the powdery mildew like wildfire. Better luck next year.
I’d had great luck with beans till this year, so I went all out and tried a number of varieties. Guess I’ll have to play it safe next year, and remember my Late Bloomer Lesson, “Be Vigilant.” I had to cut my losses with melons and beans this year. You have to jump on viruses and pests at the first sign before they threaten to overwhelm. Have you experienced blight on beans? Please let me know how you handled it.
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