August is meddlesome in the eatable garden as we enjoy harvesting summertime veggie while making Modern planting of drop crops . As mention in Virginia’sHome Vegetable Garden Planting Guide , August is harvest meter for noggin , cucumbers , aubergine , melons , gumbo , onions , peppers , white potato vine , squash , corn whisky and tomato . At the same fourth dimension , we can embed beet , Brassica oleracea italica , brussels sprout , lucre , Daucus carota sativa , cauliflower , many greens , pelf , radish , rutabaga , squash and turnips . When planting , think of that the thaw climate has changed the VA Piedmont ’s Hardiness Zone from 7a to 7b , which changes our average first frost date from October 15 to 25 to October 25 to November 5 . So for tumble crops , consider the time from planting to harvesting , and plant betimes enough to minimize rime price risk .

Summer Crops

Watering , hygiene , and harvest timing are central to extend yields of summer veggie . The1 inch of weewee per weekrule is a good guide . Be more generous when it is really red-hot and dry . Insert a finger in the soil a couple of inch to test moisture if in doubt . rich , less frequent watering is more effective than frequent luminousness lacrimation , since the wet will penetrate further into the soil where the flora root are growing . Removing morbid and discredited vegetation from the garden and sustain garden tools disinfected is also essential . Since a plant ’s Book of Job is done when it has make viable semen , pick vegetables before they touch full maturity date to keep plant producing .

August is the peak of tomato time of year .

Depending on variety and planting timing , determinate love apple potpourri may be presenting a full harvest now . Indeterminate plants can be kept productive until frost with right care . Pull off suckers , garnish pathologic leaves with disinfected prick , give a little fertilization cost increase if you have n’t amend the land since planting , and keep them well water .

If your love apple plant have yellow , spotted , or brown plot of land on leaves , they may have nutritional lack or one of a variety of disease . cosmopolitan advice is to bump off discolored leaf with a disinfect shears , then bag , and trash the diseased leaf . For assistance in place and treating possible causes , ascertain outThe Garden ShedarticleTomato Diseases .

If the fruits are slow to ripen , the articleWhy Are n’t My Tomatoes Ripening , from the Cornell Extension , explains why . At temperature above 85 ° the plants do n’t produce the lycopene and carotin compounds that stimulate the ruby-red color . We can tempt ripen by picking tomato when the first blush of color alteration occurs , storing them at 70 - 75 ° in a dark , enclosed environment ( I use a newspaper handbag ) , and perchance adding other fruit , like bananas , to give the ethylene natural gas that causes ripening to happen . The taste compromise is minimal compare to vine - ripen fruits . This is also a respectable way to protect tomatoes from invading varmint and to salve late - season fruits that are threatened by icing .

If fruit damage is the issue , get service identifying the trouble from the Missouri Botanical Garden articleTomato Fruit Problems . Good guidance on make do bloom end rot is furnish by the Wisconsin Extension articleBlossom conclusion Rot . Record name problems in your journal so that next outflow you could look for seed or transplantation that are resistant to the diseases identified and note aid advice that can help with nutritional or wet - related matter .

Managing Pest Issues

Pests can also wound your tomato harvest home . Tomato hornworms are a unwashed one . The key sign of their front is denuded leaf stem . Pick and splash if you find a uncontaminating cat . If it looks like the hornworm in the picture , leave it alone . The white cylinder on its back are beneficialbraconid wasp cocoons . The grownup white Anglo-Saxon Protestant inject egg into the hornworm . Larva feed on the insect ’s viscera until ready to pupate , and then they pass and whirl cocoon as render . midget adult wasps go forth a short time later . The hornworm may live through the wasp cps but will die before pupating .

A smorgasbord of other pests can attack our gardens in August . The Garden Shed articleEleven Common Garden Pests : designation and Managementcan help identify specific pests and treatment .

Building a diverse environmental science in the grounds and garden is whole step one for make a natural pest ascendance organisation . I ’ve been working over the past few years to add pollinator planting , end chemical utilisation , rotate crop , interplant , etc . scale down wrong done by Japanese beetles and wampum dirt ball , previously extensive , has been significantly lower . I assign this to larger beneficial insect and bird population on the property which contains legion native tree , include “ keystone ” white oak tree Tree . increase biodiversity can definitely help reduce pest invasions .

More Gardening Tips and Tasks for August :

flow in There

It ’s gentle for gardeners to slack off in August . Spring plants have exit , we ’ve been fighting both pests and the weather all summertime , and we ’re hot and tired . But if we stick it out , fall gardening can be really rewarding . Refresh the grime , plant the declension crops you savour the most , and you ’ll be able to have fresh garden produce well into , if not through , the winter .

Thanks for visiting us atThe Garden Shed . I trust to blab out again next calendar month .

Sources :

Monthly Gardening Tips , PMG Website : https://piedmontmastergardeners.org / horticulture - question / monthly - gardening - tips/#August

“ August Monthly Tip Sheets -Vegetables,”https://albemarle.ext.vt.edu / content / dam / albemarle_ext_vt_edu / files / hort - lead - sheets/8 - 14 - vegetables.pdf

Monthly Tips and Tasks , Missouri Botanical Garden : https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org / gardens - gardening / your - garden / help - for - the - home - gardener / advice - backsheesh - resourcefulness / gardening - by - month / august.aspx

feature article exposure : Piedmont Master Gardeners Cleve and Fern Campbell ’s vegetable garden in August by R. Morini