Lots of rain this month and I was out of town for more than a week of it. I was also quite busy so sometimes I forgot to go out and water things. Thankfully Mother Nature had my back a number of times. Things could have ended a lot worse than they did.

Beefsteak Tomato

This thing is really starting to get too big to get a close-up shot of it all so I took one from some distance. I did relocate it to a taller section of the enclosure I am growing everything in. It is now in the tallest possible spot and there not much more growing upwards it can do before I need to have a talk with it. Outside of pruning the dead leaves I’d rather not take the clipper to the top and limit its growth.

The day I was going go out of town it had a massive outbreak of whiteflies. I told myself there was nothing more I could do for it till I came back. So I removed all the tomatoes to take with me and left it as is.

When I returned it was covered in spiders and webs. Not a single whitefly, larva, or anything of them remained. The downside is I’m not a fan of black widows as best as I could tell that moved. It might be something else they were quite small. What chemicals and other attempts to remove the fly have failed to do Mother Nature did so with ease. Now if only I could broker a deal with its new inhabitants. Jeff the Tomato plant might just be in good shape.

My biggest fear, while I was out of town, was the news of the insane amount of rain we were getting. We tend to get heavy rain in short bursts. It instead rained heavy for prolonged amounts of times. I did have to remove quite a lot of dead leaves due to all that rain. At least it got a lot of water while I was away.

There is also a second branch starting off from the bottom. I have no idea if one should even attempt to separate it or just leave it be. I’m going guess leave it be but with the way these things can root I’m tempted to try transplanting it. I don’t have a proper container for something this size so I can just be friends with the rest of the plant.

As of this morning, there are also 4 tomatoes growing. This plant was never big on producing a lot all at once. It has at least been consistent in giving me a couple every so often to enjoy. I might have to get a step ladder to get at anything growing at the very top.

Tabasco Peppers

If my other plants where as enthusiastic about producing this much to eat I’d consider changing my diet to be more plant-based. I’m almost at a loss what to do with this much. I guess I will, in fact, need to learn how to dehydrate them.

My favorite thing about this plant is how low maintains it has been. Outside of water requirements I’ve just left it alone. It has grown a bit wild over its time but I think that adds character and I don’t want to prune that away.

I ended up packing a full Ziploc bag of these things to take with me when I left on my trip. They were a welcome sight and I’ve been told have gone into some great dishes from omelets to chili. The plant took this as a sign to grow lots more in a short amount of time.

Jalapeno

It’s all grown up now and it looks about time to pick some very soon. I’ve had really good luck last year with one. I’m glad I went out and got a new one after last year finally died and never did much for the year.

Moving forward I might just replace this one every year. While I suspect there a good chance it can withstand the warmer winters we get down here. A couple of hard freezes and that about it for these it seems.

I’m just hoping this one is more reasonable than last years and I get just enough but not an insane amount of Jalapeno. I have a feeling it’s going be a large producer. Looks likes like the neighbors will be getting some of my leftovers soon!

Other Peppers

My green and red peppers did not recover very well from the ant invasion in their potter that I discovered last month. The good news is the ants are now gone. Sadly it seems to be a little too late. They don’t seem to be doing much of anything but slowly getting smaller and smaller. I can only assume they have suffered a lot of root damage.

While it’s tempting to pick up some new ones I don’t feel like starting fresh over again this year. Next year I just won’t put two in the same container. That way if anything does happen I’ll have more ability to try and stop the spreading of any issues.

For now, I’m just going to leave them alone and water from time to time. Perhaps in the cooler months, they will be able to recover. If not oh well lesson learned about crowding.

Herbs

Before I left I bagged a decent portion of anything that looked decent and healthy. Which were my parsley and oregano. They did really well while I was gone as you can see from the photo of the oregano. I always thought I needed more plants of these. I’ve learned just one is good enough to meet my needs. This will be another thing I’ll have to try to dehydrate at some point.

While we just did hit a second growing season down here. Since I was out of town for quite a number of days this month I did not start a fresh round of Cilantro, Dill, Parsley or a bunch of other stuff. I also lost the battle on a number of herbs sadly. No more Dill or Cilantro from what I can tell. I’ll leave them be for a little while and see if anything happens.

Final Thoughts

All in all August was a decent month just a lot of rain. My Jalapeno came in but I did lose some herbs. Both were expected to happen. Still, lots of time down here to let everything recover or keep growing as it is. Jeff the Tomato has yet to take over the back area but I still got an eye on him.

I hope this has been a great month for growing for everyone. Cheers and have a good one!

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Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar.