This week

Weather is 80's and high 57 degrees.
Good for ripening during the day, but at nights
slows or stops ripening as it gets below 60
degrees tomatoes and warm season crops
will be slow to ripen.

Good for pears and apples.  They like warm
days and cool nights.

Looks like a good year for fall gardens so plant away.
Garlic goes in in mid September.
With heat, use transplants or keep soil moist.

Irrigation is still needed.

Anyone seem tomato late blight, other than
in Isfara, Tajikistan?

Rain

It is raining in the Willamette Valley.
Rain is good for the soil, less irrigating.
However,  rain can soften the raspberry
and blackberry crop.
Rain can cause the shoulder of some tomatoes
to split and crack.
Being wet AND warm = apple and pear scab.
More white powdery mildew is showing up with
the warm weather.
High prediction of powdery mildew on grapes,
prune back vines, apply wettable sulfur so the
PM does not affect the grapes.

On Line Again

Back on line again.
Great weather in Oregon.
Veggies and fruit continue to ripen nicely.
Drying, canning and eating fresh are marvelous.

Tomatoes - coming on strong.
Lots of insects showing up again.
Great Tajikistan pictures to follow.

Point to remember - when you go to the bathroom,
remember that a good portion of the world DOES NOT
 have toilets, running water, heat or air conditioners.

Second point - sanitation is almost a non word in
central Asia.
Most water has been used MANY times.  Let the
imagination run wild, and all ideas will be TRUE.

Bounty

Mid August is the time for gardens and commerical
farm stands to be in their prime.
Blueberries - near end other than a few late varieties. 
Blacberries - in full swing, may be shorter season due
the lack of water.rain.

Tree fruits - pears, apples - good for
another month or more.
Tomatoes - finally full glory for all types.
Squash have finally caught up - the zucchini
will be coming on later than normal.  Squash
look good, other than being late-ish.

2nd fig crop, and maybe, just maybe the way
the weather is going, a third crop.

Weather - highs of 88 and lows of 55 degrees.
Highs good for ripening, lows below 60 degrees
tend to shut down the warm season veggies.

Another great week ahead of us.  Here it is the middle
of August and produce is coming on
nicely, very slow at times but very nice for
most veggies.

Tree fruits doing well, especially hazelnuts -
great crop so far, pear crop-
dropping early when watering plus extra
watering is causing core rot, can't win as we
need to water;  apples doing well.

More great growing weather.
Strange weather as it has been.
Too hot and too cool in the AM's.

Apples and pears doing very well.
Grapes sizing nicely.  Watch out for
powdery mildew.  Sulfur or good aeration.

July broccoli looking very nice.
Tomatoes - full production mode.
Zucchini - still slow.



My input will be slow and limited for the next while.
So time for others to help out.

Weather and Plants

Driving around I noticed the hot weather
affecting plants.

Ash trees are really suffering from anthracnose
on the leaves and general water stress.

A lot oak trees are showing leaf stress and leaf burn
from the four weeks of 90-100 degree weather.

Wetland rushes are looking stressed.
Douglas fir and many cedar trees are running out
of water and showing tip die back from lack of water.

Good growing weather continues.
Watch watering as the evapo transpiration is high.
Blackberries ripening nicely.
Tomatoes turning red.
Corn- coming ion nicely.
Blueberries - mostly done.

Squash and pumpkins doing well now.
Apples and pears ripening.

Weekly ag report

Hazelnuts sizing nicely.  Looks like the world
carryover and the expected crop world wide
will be down.
Looks like Oregon's crop this year will almost
be as big as last year.  Nut yields being estimated
the next two weeks.
Blueberry crop - off to market except for
 small acreage.
So far less Spotted Wing Drosophila this year.

NEW CRITTER:  The brown marmorated
stink bug has been IDed in most of the I-5 counties.
Web:  http://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/group/brown-marmorated-stink-bug-oregon

Local fresh markets doing well.  Crops being
early this year.
Warm season crops - still not doing well due to
either too hot or too cool in the AM temps.

Good growing weather continues.
Flea beetle populations seem to be going down.

Blueberries - coming to a close but some will
ripen until October, call growers to see if they
have late blueberries.

Picked a ripe Bartlett pear today, yeah.

Early Gravenstein and Lodi apples -
done in another week.  Early peaches
near being done.

Figs ripe and very large this year.  Second
crop nickle size, may get a second crop
with the added summer heat.

Wild blackberries - nice production.

Italian prunes - ripe in one week.

More newer stuff

Today at the Master Gardener Plant diagnostic specialist tour we saw a few more non normal, newer sightings.  We found grape leaves with the fairly common but unique erinium mite which causes a bump on the top of the grape leaf, and the under portion is a white or brown fuzz.  The very small mite is under the fuzz.

On a quince tree, we saw what looked alike a very possible fire blight on a quince.  Fire blight is NOT suppose to be here so we will need to have it ID'ed at OSU.

The oaks  leaves  in the Veneta area are turning red and brown.  Upon closer look, there are small leaf galls in high numbers on the leaves.  The hot 100 degree weather has caused the oak galls areas to turn reddish brown.

More spotted wing drosophila finds, but still low for the year.
Brassica's still bolting.
Finding a lot of clubroot in Brassica plants.
Gravenstein apples - ripe.
Bartlett pears - sizing nicely.
Blueberries - end in sight.

Grass seed fields being plowed an prepped.
Hazelnuts - sizing really good, looks like a lot of big nuts.

Grapes - sizing nicely, powdery mildew still an issue.

The misty rain on Thursday = scab on summer apples as it was warm and wet.

Flea beetles and stripped cucumber beetles, out in high numbers.

BRASSICA PROBLEMS

Brassica plants are already bolting or going to seed problems this year. 

Now an even worse situation has occured.  Two community gardens in the Eugene, Oregon area now have very bad clubroot;  which affects most of the Brassica family, especially cabbage and broccoli.

http://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/cabbage-and-cauliflower-brassica-sp-clubroot




The micro organisms can last up to 18 years and this is a big deal where we grow a LOT of Brassicas's here summer and winter.

The web site has cultural methods to help slow down the micro organism.

Other suggestions:

Lime the soil heavily.
Do NOT remove or move ANY soil.
Do not place the diseased plants into any compost piles.
Don't till the soil, which would move the infected soil around the garden.
If found, lay carpet or cardboard down so to not track ANY soil from the infected plot.
For the next few years, just use a garden fork to get the soil ready for planting.

Concentrate or grow Brassicas in one area so the disease, when and if found can be limited to one area, rather than the the whole garden plot.