I'm so frustrated!
I did everything I thought I was supposed to do and still NOTHING! I started out with fresh new and yummy Miracle Grow Potting Soil, gingerly planted my little cucumber plants (all 12 of them into various pots) and I watered almost daily and fertilized once a week, just like the Internet experts on cucumbers suggested and look at what I've got!
NOTHING! Oh these plants were covered in blooms about a month ago and I just knew that I would be having a bumper crop of cucumbers to pickle and enjoy throughout the summer. WRONG..... I've got a dead and tangled looking mess! Not ONE SINGLE cucumber in the bunch! 
Next up are the infamous tomato plants - oh anyone can grow tomatoes... right? WRONG AGAIN! I prepared these little baby plants the same way as the cucumbers - fresh potting soil, faithfully watering and fertilizing and basically I've gotten a small handful of yellow nubby tomatoes off of the plants. I have to pick whatever I can get BEFORE they are even ripe, because the darn birds won't leave them alone. 
And this lovely plant below...well it was supposed to be the BIG BERTHA TOMATO producer and yield large red lusciousness... Oh it was covered in blooms about a month ago and I just knew I had finally achieved gardening success.... Uh not so much! This plant has NOT produced ONE SINGLE TOMATO! What the heck happened to all of those blooms? I water these plants every day - by hand - standing among the vicious mosquitoes that ravage my legs and arms - you'd think these stinkin' plants would offer me some sort of reward or recognition for my efforts! BIG NOTHING!
And here is my gang-buster crop of jalapeno peppers - a whopping *4* peppers! I had high hopes of being able to make a few quarts of pepper sauce, like my grandmother use to, but I guess not! My husband sampled one of the first peppers and he said that they weren't even hot! UGH! Maybe I'm not meant to garden? Maybe I should just stick to buying from the Farmer's Market? 
On a brighter and happier note - I will be able to harvest FIGS! Oh I do love a good fresh fig! Check out the crop on my fig tree - which I so lovingly tend to year by year! This is a very old fig tree, it was transplanted from my husband's grandmother's house after she passed away. I am very happy that it has found a home in my yard! Did I mention how much I love fresh figs?
Next up are the infamous tomato plants - oh anyone can grow tomatoes... right? WRONG AGAIN! I prepared these little baby plants the same way as the cucumbers - fresh potting soil, faithfully watering and fertilizing and basically I've gotten a small handful of yellow nubby tomatoes off of the plants. I have to pick whatever I can get BEFORE they are even ripe, because the darn birds won't leave them alone. And this lovely plant below...well it was supposed to be the BIG BERTHA TOMATO producer and yield large red lusciousness... Oh it was covered in blooms about a month ago and I just knew I had finally achieved gardening success.... Uh not so much! This plant has NOT produced ONE SINGLE TOMATO! What the heck happened to all of those blooms? I water these plants every day - by hand - standing among the vicious mosquitoes that ravage my legs and arms - you'd think these stinkin' plants would offer me some sort of reward or recognition for my efforts! BIG NOTHING!
And here is my gang-buster crop of jalapeno peppers - a whopping *4* peppers! I had high hopes of being able to make a few quarts of pepper sauce, like my grandmother use to, but I guess not! My husband sampled one of the first peppers and he said that they weren't even hot! UGH! Maybe I'm not meant to garden? Maybe I should just stick to buying from the Farmer's Market? On a brighter and happier note - I will be able to harvest FIGS! Oh I do love a good fresh fig! Check out the crop on my fig tree - which I so lovingly tend to year by year! This is a very old fig tree, it was transplanted from my husband's grandmother's house after she passed away. I am very happy that it has found a home in my yard! Did I mention how much I love fresh figs? For anyone that knows me... they all know that I don't share my figs well .... and I don't play well with others, but that's another post for another day! :) I've never had to use a net to cover my fig tree before, but after seeing what these pesky birds have done to my helpless tomato plants, I just might have to use a net this year! We'll see? I'm not playing around with my figs! This is serious business! 
5 comments:
It's hard to tell by the angle of the pictures, but the first thing that sticks out to me is that your pots are a little small for the cucumbers and tomatoes. The peppers should be fine in that size.
The peppers will for sure slow down in this heat,but if you baby them they should pick back up once the major heat has passed. I had a pepper plant at our old house that made it through Hurricane Rita and was just finally giving out when we moved in December. They are supposed to be annuals but that baby held out!
Also, you have to water alot more often when they plants are in pots. The heat makes those pots so hot the moisture doesn't even have a chance.
Another thing that can cause blooms to drop is too much nitrogen or you aren't getting any pollination. Of course, if your problem was nitrogen your plant might be big and bushy just not yield anything.
Did you add extra fertilizer to the Miracle grow soil? I've found that when I use MG in a pot it doen't usually need any extra fertilizer. Too much is not good either.
SHOOT! I don't know. Just keep trying!
Wendy - thanks! I think I've gone over all of the same scenerios you suggested. I am really beginning to wonder about the possibility that they didn't get pollinated? This isn't my first failed attempt at growing tomatoes...I've tried for a couple of years now and NEVER get anything?
I just really don't know?
Yikes, sorry about the typos in the other post.
I wanted to tell you too that sure is a pretty fig tree. I had to leave mine behind. Also my lemon and satsuma trees! I'm going to have to plant some this fall.
One trick I learned from my mother about tomatoes - buy a can of something called Blossom Set and spray the blossoms of your tomatoes. It takes the place of bees and bugs doing the pollinating and you get a ton of meaty tomatoes without a lot of seeds.
Can you plant directly into the ground? Living in Texas equals very hot temps so I would say plant in the ground and run the sprinkler every day, whether in the morning (ideal) or evening. We have cucumbers coming out of our ears and I am the only one that eats them. I wish I could send some your way!
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