Is Something Happening with Seeds and Gardening

I hear the same thing, a lot of people are not getting their usual abundance of vegetables.

We are in a pretty severe drought here in Texas. I didn't have a chance to plant this spring, but I have been working on my plot by amending the soil, and I am getting ready to plant a cover crop to help out.

I ordered seeds and decided to start them indoors to help them along. My seed germination has been unexpected and amazing. I ordered shade cloth to drape over the trellises we are building in hopes that we can keep things alive when we transplant in about a week. We bought two IBC totes, and rainwater harvesting will hopefully be in full swing by the fall. We will have drip irrigation from the rainwater, which is a big deal because our water bill has definitely increased! Now we just need the rain!

I bought worms and am now the proud Mama of thousands of the little things. It's my understanding that worm compost tea is one of the best fertilizers you can use. This whole endeavor has been much more expensive than I anticipated, but after seeing the price of one tomato plant, it might not be so bad.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
Changes in solar radiation and 5G infrastructure are stressing all life forms on the planet.
Big trouble straight ahead.

Do you have any articles related to this? Would love to read them!

a reply to: KMeRMoRe

drought seems to be a theme for sure. For others like me who are not having issues growing things has there been drought in your areas? What about those that are? We should get a list.

I'll start. I have no issues and yes it's stupid hot but it rains enough. No drought here.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

I live in wetlands in southern England and it is dryer than normal which is affecting some veggies & flowers more than others, certain shift in insects is visible, for instance violet carpenter bees normal to southern Europe and unheard of in England before 2002 are frequent visitors.. the other one is the rise in birds and alongside the avian flu outbreaks which i find more concerning than monkerypox or covid..

An old friend of mine notice something is off with their gardening too. They think something to do with increase rain acidity, co2 is messing with soils

Everything seems normal, except the asparagus bumper crop that we have never experienced before.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Food stock seeds that are normally easy to grow have not worked for me.. I wondered the same thing.. Something is not correct.

:-)

a reply to: andy06shake
Now, interesting you should mention Blackberries. In days of yore, I looked forward to September time because almost every evening after tea, my mum would take us out blackberry picking. My Great aunt would come over and there would be jam making, pie making etc.
I was literally shocked the other day getting out of my car to see the hedgerow I was parked next to, full of Blackberries ripe for picking! I get why they might appear earlier in Scotland having lived up outside Aberdeen '85-'95'ish. But beginning of August?
There's an old country saying, if the hedgerows are heavy with berries, prepare for a hard winter.
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: JAGStorm

IDK, I really think the weather has been a big factor. You live in Wisconsin. The spring/early summer here was quite bipolar in nature. There were 3-4 days in the month of May with subfreezing temperatures. I remember that, because I normally turn off my heat in late April. I had it on for a few days in early May. That's unprecendented. I can't remember the last time I did that. Then it got super duper hot, like within 2-3 days where we had heat indices above 100F. That's one crazy swing in temperatures in that short amount of time. That will mess up a lot of things, particularly fruit and vegetables.

My upstairs neighbor has a tomato vine in a large pot on her deck. She has wonderful looking tomatoes. She did mention it took a bit longer for them to get to that point, in large part, due to the weather. So who knows?

My garden has been prolific this year.

I have only had setbacks with my summer squash..

No rhyme or reason.


My green and wax beans, tomatoes,potatoes, cucumbers,lettuce,and sunflowers(for seed), have been above and beyond years past.




Respectfully,
~meathead

a reply to: angelchemuel

We are blessed with a plethora of wild berries on our property.

We pick blueberries,blackberries,currents,gooseberries and red rasberries


And jelly each.

This year was a banner year for blueberry's and blackberries. But our red raspberries did not do as well..

Mother nature can be a fickle mistress..but if we work with her.. she provides...

Wishing you well Jane!

Sincerely,
~joe

a reply to: Mike Stivic
Thank you Mike.
Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: JAGStorm

Don't know about the seeds I have already, because I cheated this year and bought plants instead (dropped the ball on timing sprouts this spring)

BUT.

All of my peppers are growing #ing weird this year. Not in size, or quality, but they are growing SLOW. I should be drowning in buttloads of first batch habaneros (among others, 4 different pepper varieties this year) but I'm still waiting. My Hungarian Wax bush has only put out 3 damn peppers so far, FFS.

It's not a lack of pollinator bugs, we have plenty doing their job with the flowers.
These plants act like something I grew in a closet many moons ago that didn't have the right bulb in the right color spectrum, and was thus painfully slow-growing. I'd almost swear the sunlight spectrum shifted based on that, but the rest of the yard's greenery is normal.

Are your seeds GMO?

S.E. ont Canada here.
All the veggie & flower gardens are lush,
(all leafy vegetables) However,
producing veggies as
beans, squash . . are limited.
There are NO Pollinators !
No bumble bees
No honey bees
No monarch butterflies
No humming birds !
They all have disappeared this year
Previous years the flower-heads on the peppermint,
bee balm, scarlet runners . . . were
covered in bees.
Humming birds were darting in and out around
the scarlet runners.
This year they are all gone, but there
is an influx of Japanese beetles
Previous years there was always bumble bees
nesting under the composting bins, this year
NONE !
I also have a large patch of milkweed that in
previous years, was a refuge for monarch butterflies.
This year there is NONE, not one !
I have had to resort to hand pollinating my Italian squash.
Oh, and those darn earwigs, always been a
nuisance, although
not as bad this year thankfully.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It may be the ground is too warm and it's screwing up germination or causing the seed trauma. Sea turtles are mostly female due to the sand being too hot...not good.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Hi neighbor, I'm in the upstate of SC! Oconee County.

Hot and dry (even tho we watered religiously) and then downpours of rain all at once made for less than normal tomato yield. Squash did well, cucumbers... meh. Egglplant, just NO. Cantaloupe (my first effort) was surprisingly fruitful (pun intended.)

Everything seems to be dying up or being flooded. pay attention.

a reply to: angelchemuel

Ive heard that saying myself Jane.

Just wish the ones up here would hurry up and ripen so i can make some jam this year.

There are plenty there on the bushes, even saw some earlier when i was out with the dog that are just about ready, im thinking another week it will be all good.

Someone else mentioned Tomato's, mine are still green, and that's 3 different varieties.

I'm in the process of getting together an planter for my window to grow Daisies.

I've never attempted to grow flowers before.

Please wish me luck!

I'm new to indoor gardening.