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FIMBY: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions

July is a good time for the gardener to assess plants’ future survival

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JUL 8, 2025

Spider mite damage is visible on these green beans in one of Kathy’s previous gardens. But any worse than this and the plants should be pulled — they wouldn’t recover. Kathy Morrison

This is another installment in our Food In My Back Yard series, devoted to edible gardening.

One of my fellow community gardeners asked me to diagnose some of her vegetable plants the other morning. What I found was a sad sight: Grean bean plants victimized by spider mites, to the point that the leaves and even the beans were mostly white, with just a little green remaining. No green, no chlorophyll, no food-producing mechanism for the plant.

Can they be saved? she asked. Highly unlikely, I replied. Better to pull them out now and maybe replant, or start something else there next month.

We turned to her pumpkin plants. Spider mite damage was visible there, too, but the leaves were still mostly green, and the little pumpkins were unharmed. These plants had a good chance of surviving until harvest. But I warned her that spider mites love hot and dusty conditions, which could be expected to continue this month. My advice: Wet the plants down in the morning, especially the undersides of the leaves, to help keep the pests under control.

This illustrates the decisions that gardeners of edible plants may be facing in the coming weeks, as July heat takes its toll on summer vegetables. Every garden is different, as is every gardener's level of patience, but here's some guidance on assessing:

Dig it up or pull it out if:

-- The plant no longer is producing new shoots. Don't worry about a lack of flowers. The plant avoids producing them or discards them when stressed. But if some of the plant is yellow or brown, yet it has been getting regular watering, examine it for evidence of new growth. If you see nothing new AT ALL on the plant, it's probably time to pull it. And some vegetables, such as corn or determinate tomatoes, might be done with their life cycle anyway.

-- It's under attack from a disease or a pest that's affecting production. A bit of leaf miner damage will not prevent a pepper's fruit from growing, for example, but a serious spider mite infestation will affect a plant's ability to photosynthesize, as in the example above. Pull and toss it into the trash, not the compost. Trying to halt an attacker at this point might be costlier, in time and product, than the value of any harvest that might yet be possible.

-- You're tired of it. Too much zucchini already? It's OK to dig it out, really. Remember to add compost to the soil afterward, so nutrients are renewed for the next crop at that spot.

Let the plant be (for now) if:

-- It was planted late and didn't produce much before July's heat hit. If the plant has vigor, even if very little fruit, leaving it in place into the fall could produce a crop when the temps are a bit lower. I found this to be true with a Black Plum tomato I was ready to give up on .

-- It’s still producing flowers. The pollen might be dried up, but the plants is still trying. This plant may be heat-resistant, even if it was never advertised as such. Lucky you! Make a note on that for next year, too.

-- You just aren’t sure. The plant’s just sitting there, but it’s clearly not dead. It may have gone into a temporary dormancy. If you’re interested in seeing what else it will produce, there’s no harm in leaving it there for a few more weeks. Be sure to keep watering it on the same schedule, and fertilize once the triple-digit heat stops. Good luck!

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FIMBY Food in My Back Yard edible gardens summer vegetables peppers tomatoes green beans pumpkins Sacramento gardening UC master gardeners summer July

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

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Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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