Well, here we are and other gardening year. I just ordered my garden seed to start plants for transplant and others for direct seeding. The seed company (Vesey's Seeds on PEI) said they are working 2 shifts getting seed out. :) One thing for sure, it must be a good time to be a seed company. ;D
I have a few items coming soon for starting my seeds. I have a 8' square grow tent, inline fan/filter and some more grow lights that should arrive in a week. I've also got to get some cheap stands and maybe some extra seed starter trays and a couple extra bags of starter soil. I should be all set for future grow ops and only need seeds and soil from here on out. ;)
Here's the tent. They are sold out of most tents. :D
https://marshydroled.ca/collections/grow-tent
Until recently there were seed stores, feed stores, and hardware stores that sold seeds locally in bulk. We usually plant our Spring gardens around Valentine's Day. We will likely have to order seeds this year. For our peas, we'll likely just buy dried ones in the grocery store aisle.
Last year we planted some spaghetti squash in some parking lot islands at school using seeds out of one squash and got a pretty good yield. Our spring garden will probably include black eyed peas, yellow squash and a few tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
Put my seed order in back in sept. We got burned the year before by ordering in late winter as usual and a lot of things were unavailable already!
Hasn't been that bad here as far as getting seed at Veseys', I have gotten all I wanted. The things that have been troublesome is plants like raspberry canes and such for spring planting. Last year I know, no one had certified raspberry canes left. Not that I needed any, but was curious what was available. None!
Have a seed order in with Baker Creek seeds and a big rubbermaid bin of saved seeds to sort through yet. Definitely still looking for some other seeds. I will try Victory seeds for the rest as I had good luck with their seeds last year. I have 2 of those marshydro grow tents and 3 led grow lights. They really work great for starting seeds and are well worth the investment. I use the Infinity AC blowers and they consume the least power of any fans I have tried so far. I never got my winter lettuce started Thanksgiving due to being sick and really miss it now. I will probably start some lettuce, bok choy, radishes, and kale next week. I hope you have cheap electric up there because it's really going to cost to run enough lights for a 8 x 8 :o. Hard to believe it's almost garden time already. With rising food prices a garden is a great investment of time these days. Only have about 50 butternuts left in the root cellar from last year and boy do they make awesome pies.
@21incher (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24694) I'll have 4 lights in the tent. The inline fan/filter I got is the Ipower 6" 442 CFM. If the lights don't emit enough heat, I can duct some in off the furnace. ;D
I ran two lights last winter, never consumed much $$. ;)
50 squash?? You better get eat'n pies. :D I think there are still 6 big 8 lb'ers here in the basement.
Got the grow tent up, didn't know which end was up for awhile. Zippered sections made it confusing, until I unzipped a couple, then it came to me. An afternoon ordeal when your in a space 10' x16'. ;D 8 foot square is huge......when your not inside a barn to assemble it. :D :D She's up anyway. smiley_dizzy dangle_smiley Everything fit perfect.
That's a monster tent. Can't imagine putting the cover on. That size is usually used for cannabis. My little tents each use about 10 dollars a month for electricity and I was guessing a 8 x 8 would need about 7 times that for fans and lights in my comment. Just started a 3 x 3 with greens and radishes.
A guy came in and set seeds up in the store. Others are coming.
The local coop announced in the paper it has it's seeds in. I need some basal and radishes. Wish my onion seed would come soon, I want to start some sets.
Working on putting the grow op together. ;D I used every bit of that grow space last winter under lights for tomatoes and peppers, only it was in my upstairs studio area. :)
In this space I have heat if I need it off furnace duct and beside a water tap. ;D
I can control the speed of the fan. And will have a timer on the lights. It's a rugged unit as is the charcoal filter, all metal housing, no plastic. Love it. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/grow-tent-Jan2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642717871)
Looks like you are in business now!!!
To keep a steady temp in the tent I run smaller fires in the stove, like 1/3 of the wood, and run the fan on the furnace continuous. This captures all the heat when there is a small bed of coals not hot enough to trip the limit controls, but lots of heat to maintain 75F. ;D This way the tent is in the mid 70's to 80F all the time and I'm not turned into a grease spot in my living room. :D I think I will get a timer for the air filter fan, and run it intermittent, like 15 mins every hour, or what ever the graduations are on the timer pins. Don't need it yet. Radishes are germinating today (planted Friday), maybe Swiss chard soon. Chard I think germinates fast, always does in the garden....until groundhogs find it. :D
Planted Friday Jan 21, 2022
radishes
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/radish-Jan24-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643033366)
sage
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/sage-jan24-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643033401)
All look good.
I have sage under about 4 inches of snow. The stems are big and woody, but puts out good tasting sage.
Puts out way more than we use.
Swiss chard is up now, an inch. The lettuce is slow, seed is old.
The seed company sent most of my seed order yesterday, should arrive by Friday I would think, since it's already in Dieppe, NB.
Be great to get my onion seed planted to get good sized bulbs for spring. :) I have bulbs of another variety ordered, but they never had bulbs for these ones.
Got my first seed order and these are some of our favorites
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_0277.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1643384167)
Here is a video showing the descriptions
My First Seed Order 2022 From Baker Creek Seeds Slideshow - YouTube (https://youtu.be/RLQr9dTpnXQ)
Great stuff, and timing. Most of my seeds will be here today as well. I stuck a couple big beef in a large pot to experiment and see if I get tomatoes by April. Just for kicks. :D Of course I have a fan on the plants to encourage stem strength and aid pollination, but will use a Q-tip as well when the time comes.
Nice set up 8) 8) What's the watt rating on your LEDs?
HI Corley5,
The wattage I'm using is 1000 w each. I've got 4 now, 4 more coming next week that should do the trick for the rest of the seedlings. It's cheaper to buy 2 - 1000 watters than one 2000 watter, if you can figure that out. :D Plus with LED's it's not drawing 1000 watts, that's just the equivalent incandescent. I need to add a timer to the fan and one for the other 4 lights coming and another cord come another socket. Lights come with adjustable pulleys to raise and lower.
Planted my onion seed and some more lettuce yesterday. Never started onion seed, so excited to see how they do.
radishes and basil Jan 29. Radishes starting first true leaves, 1 week along.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/radish-basil-Jan29-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643451934)
Are they Mars Hydro lights? We run their TS 3000s :)
No Corley, I buy what works, but not the best. They are Top-SunS and SOEVSI brands, 1000w and 1500 W models respectively. The SOEVSI brand is now about double last year's price, so switched brands. Gets the job done. This is the Mars grow tent though, which seems to be one of the best out there. It actually fits together well. Others complain the tents of competitors are too tight to fit together. I found this to be a perfect fit.
So what'cha grow'n? 8)
I may start some elderberry clippings to get them rooted. :)
Quote from: SwampDonkey on January 31, 2022, 04:48:31 AMSo what'cha grow'n? 8)
We currently aren't growing anything. We experimented the last year with the 12 plant recreational individual limit to see how it works. It works. The Mars Hydro lights work well. Most all LED grow lights use the same Samsung LED chips. We shut the grow down until we have the legal commercial license. What we were experimenting with was/is absolutely legal in this state. We have all the approvals at the local level and our pre-qualification application and fee is currently in the hands of Michigan's Dept. of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. We should have that back by the end of March and will get a Class B License allowing us 500 plants. We plan on two hundred indoors in a perpetual grow and 300 outdoors in hoop houses during the growing season. We'll see how it goes and are looking towards a 2000 plant Class C license in the future as well as partnering with an associate to bring a processing facility here.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10027/KIMG0713.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1643634828)
This week from the garden we have....
Swiss chard greens
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/swiss-chard-Feb2-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643838009)
radishes
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/radish-Feb2-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643838008)
basal
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/basal-Feb2-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643838005)
Onions germinating
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/onion-sets-Feb2-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643838005)
Happy gardening. ;D
That basil looks good.
Need a 500 foot row to get a dry pound of it. :D
@thecfarm (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=436) I don't like it that much Ray. :D :D :D
Some went into the soup at noon though. ;D
Me either, but I was just saying. ;D
We probably plant a 20 foot row, under crop cover, so the bugs don't it all before we can get at it.
Love the smell of that stuff.
Quote from: Corley5 on January 31, 2022, 08:30:08 AM
Quote from: SwampDonkey on January 31, 2022, 04:48:31 AMSo what'cha grow'n? 8)
We currently aren't growing anything. We experimented the last year with the 12 plant recreational individual limit to see how it works. It works. The Mars Hydro lights work well. Most all LED grow lights use the same Samsung LED chips. We shut the grow down until we have the legal commercial license. What we were experimenting with was/is absolutely legal in this state. We have all the approvals at the local level and our pre-qualification application and fee is currently in the hands of Michigan's Dept. of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. We should have that back by the end of March and will get a Class B License allowing us 500 plants. We plan on two hundred indoors in a perpetual grow and 300 outdoors in hoop houses during the growing season. We'll see how it goes and are looking towards a 2000 plant Class C license in the future as well as partnering with an associate to bring a processing facility here.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10027/KIMG0713.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1643634828)
Here in Virginia the hemp growers have been getting crushed by the guys in KY. Mary Jane grows really well almost anywhere, we used to find plots of it all over the place in pine plantations in NC during the 80s. Fun times had by all. Strangely enough I don't partake but I was a popular kid once in a while. Nothing like having a few pounds of buds.
In Thailand I had some associates that had a friend that was a prince of some sort, huge palatial compound a bit run down. We'd go there and they'd light a brick of Thai Stick and shut the windows and have a hard rock jam session. Literally could hardly see the other side of a 20x20' room. The small house was dedicated just to music and man..did they burn some buds. A brick was mostly burned after 2 hours and when I say brick it looked like the size of a red clay building brick, solid packed Thai stick.
@nativewolf (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24089) Sounds like some tree planters in a PNW camp after a hard day pushing trees in the ground. If you're ever in a remote logging camp, don't let them send you to the tree planters bunk house for the next 2 weeks unless you don't inhale. :D :D
@thecfarm (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=436) I like the smell of sage as well. Not so much the stuff mentioned above. I don't partake in that type of recreation. :D But I'm glad some governments had the sense to decriminalize it. The stuff our governments will sometimes fill your head with is no better. :D
We won't go in that direction here. I just want to grow food, some of which is good medicine it turns out. ;D
Happy gardening. :)
I'm like you @swampdonkey, I don't partake and am glad it is decriminalized. What a waste of jail space and give me a pot smoker over an alcoholic any day.
Love the garden starts you are showing. Agreed with my son that we are ignoring the garden this year. Just work and more work. So, please keep posting and we'll enjoy gardening vicariously.
Feb 8 update:
talon onions
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/onion-talon-Feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339546)
Tango leaf lettuce
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/lettuce-tango-Feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339545)
Iceberg head lettuce
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/lettuce-iceburg-Feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339307)
Fernleaf dill
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/dill-fernleaf-Feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339302)
Basal
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/basal-feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339301)
Swiss chard red stem
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/swisschard-Feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339309)
Tomato- Big beef
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomato-bigbeef-Feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339314)
Radish
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/radish-Feb8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644339833)
Salad greens for dinner: basal, chard, lettuce (tango leaves and iceberg), dill, radish. I'm going to put some onion slices on it and some cheddar and top with a vinaigrette dressing. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/salad-greens-Feb11-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644592154)
Bon appetite. :)
Feb 18
Experimental big beef
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomato-bigbeef-Geb18-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645178512)
Talon onion on 3rd leaf
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/onion-talon-Feb18-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645178511)
Tango leaf lettuce....I've got another dozen heads of iceberg.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/lettuce-Tango-Feb18-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645178509)
Happy gardening. ;)
Thats a setup worthy of envy swampdonkey. Im impressed.
I've been pleased Mike, and especially since my electric bill, since I started the tent, did not have a spike in electric use. I've been gleaming from the garden now for 2 weeks, every day. That leaf lettuce, and radish as well, is a miracle or nature. You pick from each crop every day once it reaches a certain size. I've got radish now 2 weeks behind the first that I can also pick. But I'm still clearing away (eating) the first bunch of radish, which will likely itself last another full week. Another plus is no growth cracks in the radish. Been eating chard leaves every day to. They are a bit earthy uncooked, but red is good. Throw some cheddar, or sour cream on or vinaigrette and enjoy. I planted string beans Thursday and I suspect they will emerge by Monday. ;D
The growing looks good. I did not say the green stuff looks good. ;) :D
Our makeshift hothouse in the polebarn.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/20220219_193717.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645321968)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/20220219_193734.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645321968)
I have two electric mats that they use to keep piglets warm in the barn. Overhead, I use grow lights. Some seeds sprout overnight, most within a couple of days.
Everything in peat discs, then put in peat containers which I just drop into the ground. One day its a dirt plot, next day its a full garden.
Beans are just starting to break ground this morning. 8)
How many days to get the beans sprouted?
Planted them Thursday. They are not fully elongated above the dirt yet. Will take photo when they are. :)
Growing up we always planted string beans when we did the garden, probably late May, when the ground is still cold. Seem like it took forever for the beans to come up, at least a week or more.
When we were selling produce, I planted string beans once every 2 weeks so we would have a steady supply.
I was shocked how quick they came up in July, almost like cucumbers!!
I always had germination trouble with beans if there wasn't quite enough rain after they started. Our springs here during planting are most always dry like the dust bowl. Pity the guy that used to sit on a potato row planter in that dust and wind. Awful believe me. It might turn dry and the bean ends will die off where they should have a new shoot. They would end up growing from a side bud, and not the terminal. They were always through the ground in a week when planted in mid June. If planted in May up here, frost would get them always and cold ground isn't good on beans. My beans last year, the few the ground hog never ate, had beans for 3 months. I planted some green beans the end of July and had beans to make pickles and eat along with the yellows for weeks on end. The darn things blossomed all summer. Can't plant them in February out there under the ice and snow though. :D
Should be all above ground by the end of the day. I see all but one breaking ground right now. 8)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/beans-Feb21-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645450681)
Looking good. You are going to need some bees in that tent soon. My bok choy is almost ready but everything is slow growing now. I tried my 1000 watt Viosun light and its nowhere as good as my Mars Hydro lights. Going back to the Mars when I start the tomatoes.
Wind pollination for tomatoes (2) and maybe a Q-tip. And bush beans do not need pollinators. 8)
All I use is 1000 to 1500 watt lamps, with great success. I also heat my tent. 8)
Some people don't realize that 4 - 1000 watt lamps (100-120 watt) together is the same as one of the 2 x 2 lamps with 4000 watts (400-480 watts). They don't realize that it's more than watts that increase. Light disperses and crosses paths. A lot of marketing fluff out there. :D Peppers especially like it real warm for germination. Tomatoes grow like pig weeds. :D
Right now the plants use 3 gallons of water a day. This is because of heating and air turbulence. A lot of it is evaporation, not transpiration. Tent humidity is usually 35%, since there is intake of dry and outtake of moist air. There is about 9 hrs when the fans are off, when the lights go off. :)
One week since seeding. Yellow bush beans.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/beans-yellow-bush-Feb24-202.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645701732)
Potted these black elderberry cuttings this week. Hoping to get at least a couple rooted to plant this spring. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/black-elder-Feb26-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645871921)
I started some tomatoes this past Monday. About 7 small packets of various seeds was $27 and I noticed a 50# bag of fescue was priced @ $99. I bought some fescue seed for the yard last year on sale for $50. Don't know how real farmers can handle the cost of inputs. My fencelines will just have to grow up as I am not going to pay $67 a gallon for generic glypho.
Quote from: stavebuyer on February 26, 2022, 08:44:57 AMDon't know how real farmers can handle the cost of inputs.
Neither do they. Gonna wipe most out and consolidate the large scale food supply into corporate conglomerate hands just like the beef and pork systems.
Heh, don't leave out dairy! You wanna see conglomeration, come up to my weed patch. Wisconsin has lost most of it's dairy farms and farmers in the last oh ..twenty five years, but not the number of acres of farm land or size of milking herds. All big boys now. And when you hear about government price supports, disaster insurance, trade war compensation giveaways...well, who do you think is and always will be first at the trough.
But hey, we do export an awful lot of cheese.🍕
Gee, i wonder how this happened.
:big sigh:
I have been pricing dairy cows lately. They fetch pretty good money privately but some didnt even sell my last 2 times at the stockyard.
The first tomato flowers begin to emerge. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/toamto-flowers-March1-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1646166869)
Quote from: caveman on January 15, 2022, 07:30:41 AM
Until recently there were seed stores, feed stores, and hardware stores that sold seeds locally in bulk. We usually plant our Spring gardens around Valentine's Day. We will likely have to order seeds this year. For our peas, we'll likely just buy dried ones in the grocery store aisle.
Last year we planted some spaghetti squash in some parking lot islands at school using seeds out of one squash and got a pretty good yield. Our spring garden will probably include black eyed peas, yellow squash and a few tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
Box stores in FL and elsewhere have seed racks for common varieties as you mention and even some heirlooms. Using store bought beans as seed stock carries the risk of old seeds and might also be irradiated. Bean seed collectors always freeze their beans and grow every variety every so often too. Bean websites for serious bean people some I've seen keep many types-like in the hundreds.
The NYT's paper had a good, well-informed article on starting tomatoes a few weeks back. The writer said he starts his maters in 3" peat pots in mass plantings then breaks up the two leaf seedlings and finishes individually. Says they like the togetherness and gets far better results. Even though we are experienced and use a heat mat and south picture window we do get some "don't come up" results and throw in another seed.
With heirlooms we save our own seeds in tomatoes and beans. Seeds are not only pricey but even smaller pkgs! We buy Burpee's Super Beefsteaks every few years as an F1 and no saving them. Same for Jalapeno's in F1.
Local Walmart this year probably has 6 times the number of seeds that they've ever had. Usually they only had a spin rack and this year there's 3 of those and a two side shelf system besides. Vesey seeds sells larger quantity, but online or local to them. It's not really bulk, but it's large quantity.
I can get all the heirloom baking bean seed at Vesey's. The staple ones up in this part of the world and in the state of Maine have been 'yellow eye' and 'soldier' mostly, but Jacob's cattle as well. I knew an old Indian (in her 90's) on the local reservation who kept seed going from the original stock from my Great Great Grandfather, but she got hers from my great grandfather's bother, we called uncle Will. Uncle Will inherited the homestead and farmed. They were 'Jacob's cattle'. But good baking beans can be had at the farm market by the 5lb bag, so I don't need to grow and thresh beans. Saturday noon is bean dinner, with biscuit or cornbread. ;)
When covid first hit we sold some seeds!!!
Then I think reality set in and everyone who bought said, Oh you have to weed? ::)
The next year was a normal amount.
Your plants are looking good!!!
i met a poplar buyer from kentucky not too long ago who showed me a ziplock baggy full of bean seeds that been in his family for something like 3 generations or 100 yrs or whatever he said. long time. pretty neat.
2 nights ago i made black eye peas with sugar snaps, onion, pepper, ground pork and butter, with bread which was a treat since ive mostly quit bread. man it was good. everything was purchased but i hope by next year im the producer of everything.
As I have posted before, check out this heirloom bean seller in Ohio: Heirloom Bean Seed - By Wrights Heirlooms (http://www.wrightsheirlooms.com) . The historical references note even the KY or other Appalachian counties and states the beans came from. In my wifes family, several beans they once grew were named after family members, such as one we've grown called "Aunt Mossies" bean. Many of those named beans have other names dating to back when people had no web to play with and thus they are the same as some with other names.
I still remember my first visit to whats called the "Paintsville Stock Sale", a small, rural, livestock market and trading place in Johnson Co, KY (wifes home county) where pin hookers and traders gathered on Saturdays. The small animal and seeds area was sort of an agricultural flea market of sorts and one old lady had a table setup with a couple dozen old coffee cups, none that matched, each full of various garden seeds. No telling what seeds have been lost to time, which were once bean popular varieties, grown by mountain families. Our main bean is the Grandpa Bishop Bean which has an interesting history of it's own. Comes from the Salt river area of KY.
There are several others that specialize in these old beans if you search.
In my very small rural county, the local Southern States store will sell around 50 gallons of half runner seeds in a season. I'm talking pre-covid, not during this crazy time we live in now.
Someone said they were looking for lettuce. ;D I eat a bowl full every day, with radish slices, dill, chard leaf or two, and a basal leaf thrown in. Throw some cheddar on and top with dressing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/lettuce-March3-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1646347095)
The beans, they stood still for a week to get a good root established, now kicking into gear.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/yellowbeans-March3-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1646347097)
I finally am getting some greens to enjoy. Haven't done anything but dump water on every couple days and started thinning today.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_0592.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1646521980)
Got some dinky but tasty radishes
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_0599.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1646521984)
Got some baby bok choy for dinner
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_0616.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1646521993)
Made a salad for lunch with the lettuce. Some pickled nadapenos and roasted red peppers from last years garden
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_0624~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1646522000)
And a pork stir fry with the bok choy and kale picked today
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_0631.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1646522005)
A couple more weeks and the outside plants get started.
It all looks really good, nice job.
Man you do some good stuff on the garden stuff. I love salad 👍
It's a good way to use up old seeds and doesn't take any work or bug control. 8)
Good stuff, here's to good health. smiley_beertoast
Gotta start at them radish as soon as possible, they grow fast. I've got some 2" across, still taste good to and no cracks. ;)
My onion sets are coming along. Hopefully, they will bulb enough and I can dry and store them for spring by the end of March. Hand for scale. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/onions-talon-March6-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1646588028)
Happy gardening.
Seeing some buds open up on the black elder cuttings. Time will tell if they decide to root. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/blackelder-March8-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1646752655)
Trimmed off the onion tops to 4" for them to bulb up quicker. Planted some more radishes. I think another week there will be blossoms on the beans. They are a 55 day bean to maturity, but they are like ever bearing beans. I'm seeing what looks like green flower buds, so probably this week in bloom. Planted around mid-February.
Happy gardening.
Yellow string beans beginning to blossom. ;)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/beans-blossoms-March15-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647338898)
Fruit are setting up on the tomatoes. ;)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomato-fruit-set-March15-20.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647354538)
I still have a week before starting mine. We can't put them out until the end of May. You must have a tent full.
Quote from: 21incher on March 16, 2022, 07:41:02 PM
I still have a week before starting mine. We can't put them out until the end of May. You must have a tent full.
@21ncher No, just two experimental tomatoes. I don't start my outdoor tomatoes until about May, and peppers end of April. Peppers germinate and grow slow. I can get a tomato germinated in 3-4 days. Peppers are 2-3 weeks. I can't put plants out until the 15th of June. We always get a killing frost the first week of June, very rare not to.
The beans are in a container the size of a laundry basket, it is a laundry basket. I've filled the bottom with wood, and 4" soil on top of a barrier. ;D
New radishes are all up as of yesterday. :)
Progress on the beans. Should have beans to eat in 1-2 weeks I'm guessing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/yellowbeans-March18-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647599635)
Black elderberry rooting success. 8) There are new shoots sprouted on all the sticks, and 2 inch long roots. Here is the first new shoot to break free. Love free (no pun) plants. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/elder-shoot-March19-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647684728)
Tomatoes, 4 days after last photo. Growing fast. Won't be long. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomatoes-March19-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647697587)
I get a big chuckle from seeing this :) I can't even plant outside for another 2 months here. >:(
@jb616 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=37766) Me either. ;D Be starting my outdoor stuff in the grow tent a month or 6 weeks from now.
I see beans this morning. Not long now, poppa Smurf. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/beans-March20-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647769778)
looks like it is growing a finger! :o :o :o
I wonder if this will turn into a children's book as it grows through the roof . The Donkey and the bean stalk. :D
:D :D :D
8) It ain't easy being green
How did you do that? :o :o :o 8) :snowball:
@doc henderson (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=41041)
[move] [/move]
The move function. Back in the day, a lot of code was hand typed in the forum. ;)
cool. thanks!
I've cut a couple of tomatoes off, they were 2" wide and started developing blossom end rot. A sign of calcium deficiency. I've also ordered a better fertilizer for blossom and fruit development (higher in P and K) which also has calcium in it. I'm going to sew a couple of seeds of a smaller variety and continue on with experimenting. ;)
I can remember when it was easy to grow tomatoes.
Not many bugs either.
I find tomatoes a bit fickle when grown inside. ;D
Beans are growing. Won't be ready until they turn yellow. Got another 6 inches to grow yet though. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/beans-March24-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648127430)
in fall i broadcast clover and covered in woodchips for winter. richened up the soil quite a bit and is growing like wildfire on the warm days now.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/43722/0320221528.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648238020)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/43722/0320221847.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648237660)
you can see the wood humus in the root bed now.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/43722/0320221532.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648237640)
the seed rows are between the green rows. i put a light carbon fluff ontop to help keep the fungal microbes alive and prevent crusting the top layer. bald spots are from the dogs and also get wood chipped which becomes the spots i step in. all this dirt was rock hard sandy tan clay just 5 years ago. its over a foot deep at the retaining wall edge that i filled into. no more tilling for me on this patch.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/43722/0324221833.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648236775)
after emergence i will walk on the green strips when needed to prevent compaction. its fine if the clover dies, i will probably wood chip over it at the end of its season. the clover also suppresses weeds and fixes nitrogen that is shared with the table crops. i tear off anything that will shade the crop. what i tear off goes to the chicken, clover is probably 30-40% of their feed.
a few more rows need to go in. the unused portion is gonna get tomatoes and peppers etc that are in the loft space of the shed, which has a clear solar strip on the ridge. just mylar from amazon, stays bright up there until truly dark outside. we still have a few more frosts coming.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/43722/0320221513.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648237983)
Will pick a handful of ripe beans for dinner, quite a few green ones still. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/beans-ripe-March28-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648468083)
😋 I bet they were good. Started my tomatoes and peppers today.
If someone likes beans, those would look good!!!
Good job.
When we was selling veggies, I planted beans once every 2 weeks. We had a steady supply of beans, right up until frost.
I love string beans and like them pickled in a mustard sauce to. Don't over cook your beans, need them firm not like mush. ;D
I will be starting peppers mid April and Tomatoes mid May. :) I have more varieties of each.
We stopped at the local hardware that we get our seeds from, and the lady said they won't get any onion sets in until the 8th of April.
The last two years I put off going to pick any up until it was almost too late!
I'm going to soon harden off my sets I started from seed, but I have some more sets coming in April from Vesey's. I've always been able to get Spanish onion sets at the hardware store, but always got them early. In the past, I found by May the seeds I wanted to get in local stores would be all gone. Two year ago wasn't a tomato left by May 1st. Our planting season isn't until June. There musta been a lot of burnt tomatoes by June 10th that year. Because we had hard white frost the first 3 days of June, right after 3 days of 90's. A couple warm days always catches those in a hurry, and every spring. They might get lucky 10% of the time. :D
Snowed here yesterday, freezing rain today. Nothing but showers and rain in the forecast. Ground is so soaked it will be weeks before I move a tractor or a skidder. I did pick up 400 lbs of potato seed yesterday. 200 lbs of Chieftains and 200 lbs of kennebec. Most of my seed orders have arrived already. I do most of my plowing in the fall so just need it to dry up A LOT and I'm ready to run the disks over everything and start spreading lime. But nothings going to happen here till some good warm drying days.
Plowing in the fall, you farming heavy clay ground?
I'm getting some better fertilizer into the tomatoes and not getting end rot any more. Might end up with a dozen ripe tomatoes by month end on those. And the smaller tomatoes, Scotians, germinated in 4 days. Also should have 3 cuke plants up in a couple days. Those will be ready to pick by mid May if all goes well. 2 months ahead of garden ones. New crop of Tango leaf lettuce is up. Second crop of radishes are ready to pick. ;D
From thumb size to 2" in a week. I lost 6 to end rot before I got the proper fertilizer into them. There are 4 or 5 other tiny ones and there are some more new blooms. Hoping to get 12 ripe tomatoes in the end. Who knows. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomato-April4-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1649065138)
Cucumbers, 3 days to germinate on the greener ones and 6 days on the lighter one, so it just broke ground over night.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/cucumber_April4-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1649065139)
Update on the elders. Looks like I should get two viable shoots. I know that other stick at the back has new roots and a shoot under the soil.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/black-elder-April4-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1649065135)
Happy gardening. ;D
What kind of light are you using again?
I transplanted sunflowers into bigger cups yesterday and am waffling on whether to plant another few rows of brassica in the ground when we have a 29°F evening on the way
1000 w equiv (110 w actual). full spectrum LED. TOPSUN-S brand, but it's nothing special. Got one more coming Wednesday. Up here it's roughly $100-125 per 1000 watt. I got these for $89 + tax each I think. Price goes up and down every week on Amazon. :D
Started my tomatoes and peppers. Cut way back this year.
Tomato And Pepper Seed Starting 2022 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/TUpvPVN6SMM)
Planted a variety of peppers the other day in a 72 cell tray.
Here is what the cucumbers did this week.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/cucumber-April10-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1649624147)
Tomatoes. The back one is about 3" wide and the two up front are 1-1/2 and 1-3/4". I've pruned them back a lot. The older leaves are getting a little gangly so the plants will not win for beauty. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomatoes-April10-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1649624149)
The peppers are beginning to germinate, the 'Carmen' slender red sweet peppers came up quick, jalapenos and red bells are slower.
The local stores are saying Roma Italian Green bean seed is unobtainable this year. Our favorite; and have grown them for over 40 years. I found some at Gurney's but with shipping are going to cost $18/lb.
I am tired of Covid. :snowball:
Looks similar to Velero Romano flat beans. 500 seeds for CDN$12.80 at Veseys on PEI. 54 days to maturity. They sell larger sacks up to 80,000 seeds. I would imagine they are counted by weight on a count scale, I have one. Whose going to physically count 80,000 seeds? :D
A bean counter :D
Quote from: stavebuyer on April 14, 2022, 06:57:45 PM
The local stores are saying Roma Italian Green bean seed is unobtainable this year. Our favorite; and have grown them for over 40 years. I found some at Gurney's but with shipping are going to cost $18/lb.
I am tired of Covid. :snowball:
Might try Grandpa Bishop heirloom beans, One place to look is www.appalachianheirloomplant farm.com
another we use is Heirloom Bean Seed - By Wrights Heirlooms (http://www.wrightsheirlooms.com)
We also grow a bean called Bob Hayes bean grown by a guy I know who taught at Morehead state-it's a broad bean with great taste and keeps well. We raise only beans with strings, FWIW.
Probably another 3 weeks before we can even think about putting stuff out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/20220415_101444.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650038326)
Peppers are not quite all germinated, be a couple days probably.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/peppers-April16-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650121138)
Separated one of the cukes. Growing like gangbusters.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/cukes-April16-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650121135)
A couple of these Scotians
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomatoes-April-16-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650121133)
Basal, I've cut this back to half height earlier, now ready for another hair cut.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/basal-April16-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650121129)
black elder update.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/blackelder-April16-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650121128)
I tried that new 2 ft x 4 ft heat mat this year and my peppers all germinated in a couple days. Snowed again today and I am really late getting started outside. Hope it starts warming up soon.
It was only 6 days for total germ. I think last year it was 2 weeks just in sunlight and with grow light on as well in an open room. But yeah, a warm mat certainly works to speed things up to. My tent is heated and trays on stands and have circulation fans, so it's getting heat all around as is, 75-80 degrees. Some seed is 2 years old. I've got lots of time here, nothing goes in before the middle of June. I think this year was 2 or 3 weeks longer for lawn to get bare. In 2020 we had our last snow storm on the 9th of May. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/snow-May9-2020-2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1589027746)
I see my old clump of rhubarb coming to life, always get a snow on it when it comes up. One tough plant. :)
Cuke update, I do see some runners emerging, so those will have the flowers. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/cukes-April22-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650654614)
Will be transplanting peppers tomorrow and I have markers for them, several varieties to keep straight. ;) I won't be potting them all, just 8 of the best of each for the garden. And leave some for back up in case I loose one in the transfer. ;)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/peppers-April22-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650654628)
Mother nature has covid? We have two more frosts on the agenda for a week from now. Showy Orchis is in bloom, Mayapples are mostly up, Blood Roots in bloom, Forsythia's long gone, Buckeye many leaves are burnt, Dogwoods often burnt, Redbuds so-so, this weekends slated top be hot near 80's then these two frosts next week, bye-bye leaves. Our tomato seedlings could go out now, but ;D...
@kantuckid (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=7283) That was 2020. ;D But 30 degree mornings ain't quite warm enough for plant life. :D I don't set nothing out until June 15th. We always get frost the first week of June. The absent minded will stick stuff out when we get a hot snap the end of May, then have it turn black by June 7th. :D I think old Bernstein in ND gets in a hurry to garden every spring, always has to plant stuff over, too cold in April in ND, just like here. But gonna try anyway, and loose in the end. :D :D
Uncle always said a June garden is ahead of any planted too early. :D
We plant a bunch of peppers too.
I like ace the best for the sweet ones. Even those the size of a half dollar in Sept are still good. ;) They keep putting fruit on until frost.
Seem like last year was cold in the mornings too.
Peppers seem to be tough, I picked into October last year, and finally just pulled them when everything else was done. ;D
Different varieties up here in Canada from MacKenzie and Veseys. All look and taste like peppers to me. :D I like to grow the varieties that turn red, that way you have green and red both. :)
Planning on preserving a lot more jalapeno slices this year, great on a meat sandwich. ;D
A TN company signed up many growers for sweet peppers here in KY. It lasted only a few years then every grower quit. The red's paid a per ton premium but weather killed too many peppers to get enough reds to make it pay off and the greens were priced at what was break even or lose money. The effort was one of several to replace burley tobacco as a local cash crop in KY. Peaches are similar here as frost burns them 3 out of 5 years-approximately.
We don't plant in main garden until soils warm which isn't now. Yesterday temps in TN and KY ran from mid to high 80's but gets a hard frost later this week here twice.
Cuke blossoms emerging. ;)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/cuke-blossom-April27-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651048538)
Snowing again down here. Going to be a late start >:(.
It's been a slow start here. The cold wind just won't blow itself out of here. Expecting a frost here tonight and the next few. I'm ready for warm weather.
Tomatoes are ripening. 8)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomato-April28-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651156323)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomato-2-April28-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651156322)
We're in the middle of a 5 day storm, rain one minute snow the next.
The cucumber climb begins. The string is doubled so you can loop the vine between them to help support them. ;)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/cukes-April29-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651225404)
Not long now. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/tomato-April30-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651351421)
Those are looking good!!!!!!!!
They'll be tasty.
The tomatoes taste just like from the garden. I've got another ripe one, plus a couple others turning. Some good to. ;D
Here are some cukes in full bloom.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/cukes-May6-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651846365)
Elder update, starting to flower. ;)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/blackelder-May6-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651846368)
Garden here is dry as snuff. I put on lime today on the veg and fruit gardens. Soon be rhubarb, even the new ones are coming up. All the berry gardens got a good dump of manure today and the small framed veg gardens did to. Apple tree and plums got some to and lime. I was busy all morning from 7:00 am until noon because I was weeding everything first. So only thing to do is till the veg gardens and add fertilizer, that will be a couple weeks and later at 5 weeks for the main garden. I have some fencing to do to, ground hogs. ;D I've got all kinds of black spruce posts to bring down from the woodlot. ;) The old back was sore after all that bag handling, some was 40 lbs plus the water that was soaked into it. More like 80lb. :D
Planted some clumps of basal from the grow tent. Planted onion sets, leaf lettuce, carrot, parsnip seeds. Also planted some iceburg and leaf lettuce from the grow tent. Too soon for anything else. Watered the seeds and plants in, real dry ground on the top 2" of soil. Lots of organic in the garden soil compared to a potato field. Maybe rain this weekend. :) 92F today, but cooler coming this week.
I will plant my tomato seed tomorrow in the grow tent. ;)
A local greenhouse operator, who's also a retired ag teacher- he grows hydroponic tomatoes from his greenhouse and sells at local farmers market. I've tried them and the taste & hard texture was like an off-season grocery store, "brought on" tomato. Do you have outside tomatoes to compare with?
Our tomato seedling suffered from a month of not much sun to intense sun ever since then! It was difficult to harden them off for transplanting to main garden. Lacking a shade cloth arrangement, we use our screened in front porch with a southern exposure, but some still had burned leaves.
Now we need rain!
I don't grow them hydroponically. They are in dirt and taste like the garden ones. ;) Like a potato, the good old dirt changes the flavour. If it is just water and fertilizer, pass. ;)
I plant them directly outside here from the grow tent. They take well to our northern sun.
I put the cukes out this morning in their pots, they require you to be on the ball with fertilizing the blossoms. You have to take pollen from the male and put onto the female blossom. A tomato blossom is a perfect flower, both parts, less fuss to pollinate. I'll let the bees do their work on the cukes, or let them perish. :D
Sunday planted tomatoes, basal, lettuce, dill for sets. I see everything is coming up now, might take another day or two to finish germ. I don't set up until mid June. Been 50's this week and wet out. Too cold for garden veg to grow much. 30's F tonight predicted, was 40F this morning. ;D
I beat the rain by about 25 minutes today planting. I put in the first acre of Honey select sweet corn, a half acre of Chieftain potatoes and a half acre of Kennebeck potatoes. Ill plant more about every ten days now till Im out of seed.
The Asparagus is doing great, I'm eating that every day for supper now, and its already selling at the stand. And I put in 10 60ft. rows of candy onions yesterday. Cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and a few other odds and ends in and doing okay.
As always I have high hopes for the summer but always keeping in mind how fast a season can go south on us. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. We are aware how blessed we are to be able to work this land and spend our days outside in the sun.
Quote from: SwampDonkey on May 14, 2022, 10:12:26 AM
I don't grow them hydroponically. They are in dirt and taste like the garden ones. ;) Like a potato, the good old dirt changes the flavour. If it is just water and fertilizer, pass. ;)
I certainly agree with that.
Looks like after the middle of next week we will be safe to start moving plants out in the garden. Onions , garlic, shallots, spinach, lettuce, and radishes doing good now. Those couple of real hot days we got stunted my kale.
Too cold to do any outdoor gardening, it is snowing on the hills to the east. :'( I have had some early asparagus and radishes which were very good but everything else is going to be a late start.
I see some lettuce germination in the garden. The onions I started in the grow tent are starting new green shoots in the garden now, so that was successful so far. I have some other onion starts I'll plant when I set out the peppers and tomatoes, 3 weeks way for that. ;D Only going to be in the 60's next week.
This might be the first year for plums, the frost has held off and no beating hail storms, yet. :D I see blossoms on the Cortland apple. I just planted it for the blooms as I know the bugs will move in on the apples and I don't put sprays on any fruit plants. It is what it is. ;D I see life in the grape vines, hoping no white frost to reset those. :D
Quote from: B.C.C. Lapp on May 18, 2022, 04:46:00 PM
I beat the rain by about 25 minutes today planting. I put in the first acre of Honey select sweet corn, a half acre of Chieftain potatoes and a half acre of Kennebeck potatoes. Ill plant more about every ten days now till Im out of seed.
The Asparagus is doing great, I'm eating that every day for supper now, and its already selling at the stand. And I put in 10 60ft. rows of candy onions yesterday. Cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and a few other odds and ends in and doing okay.
As always I have high hopes for the summer but always keeping in mind how fast a season can go south on us. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. We are aware how blessed we are to be able to work this land and spend our days outside in the sun.
BCC are you growing potatoes every year, many problems with pests and insects?
I'd like to grow some potatoes here I think they'd sell well. Been looking into a bit wanting to do it without much chemical dependence. Not a lot of information out there on doing it on a decent size scale without heavy input use.
Not much better than a big helping of fresh baby red potatoes and peas with enough butter to support the dairy farmers. That's my kind of delicious.
Got a little hillside garden close to the house.Cucumbers and watermelon are up.Trying using sawdust to keep weeds down when they start vining.Lettuce bed coming along and onions.Taders are looking good in the big garden.Planting sweet corn in a couple days
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/BD0FDF4B-E020-460A-B5B0-40476935F08B.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1653100369)
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Didn't buy any seed potatoes this year.Had about a half bushel left from last year with plenty of sprouts.Cut them up and planted.No fertilizer yet.So far so good.Already hilled them up once.(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/9743F714-583C-414F-8FA8-FF1CC1AF3454.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1653151268)
Well finally got everything in. A quick walk around
Garden 2022 Part1 Its Planted A Quick Walk Around - YouTube (https://youtu.be/1gD4juzCiFU)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/D2B3B6B3-6C7B-445F-A781-1ECEDB0BD739.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1653944006)<Hillside garden all planted and everything is up.Brushhoged a 1/2 acre bottom,raked it with a hand rake and used grass for mulch.Not much weeding or water will be needed this summer. I use very little fertilizer.Been doing this for years and it works out good.br>
Everyone is doing good. Still waiting for warmer days here. Only 60 F and could be frost tonight. I do have onion, carrots, parsnip, lettuce growing in the garden. I have the fence around most of it, ground hogs like all them except onions. :D
I put in 225 more pounds of kennebecks and Chieftains today along with 6 more rows of honey select corn. Almost time to start planting gourds, Indian corn and more kinds of pumpkins than I care to think to hard on.
I put in some more garden here today. Sweet Momma winter squash, cuke seeds, yellow and green string beans, beets, talon onion sets from the grow tent, lettuce and basal sets from the grow tent, some more dill weed, small patch of radish. ;D
Happy Birthday Swamp Donkey Donk!
Put on the floating fabric on the beats, beans and squash this morning and put up the fencing. Laid down the black fabric where the peppers and tomatoes will go.
Had coons digging in the fresh planted beat beds, so the fence had to go up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/garden-fence-Jne4-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654374823)
Looking good. I hate coons. That's why I don't plant a lot of corn now. I had one try to eat every grape on my vines one night a couple years back and found him dead under the vines the next morning. He must have eaten 50 pounds of them that finally did him in.
Do you direct seed your beets or transplant them?
@newoodguy78 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=30841) Just direct seed them. We like the greens as much as the roots.
I'm not a big fan of corn, but I've always had to fence it, even overhead, then the stalks just grow up through.
When we had the veggie stand, we almost paid off the farm just selling beet greens.
A good early crop to let people know we are open.
I direct seed most all of them here we did transplant some early just to give them a jump. It's crazy how well beets sell for us.
We like to pickle beets to, some good in winter. ;)
Second time hilling potatoes and they are starting to bloom.Got tomato's staked and cucumbers starting to run.Things are starting to look better up here at starvation camp 😀
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/A19A5C58-7884-40EF-A915-69C96456E8B8.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1654566245)
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I set in the peppers yesterday morning. They all have blooms or buds on them. They are not as tall as last spring, but they were started later. A short one will grow a pepper just as good as a tall one. ;D We have lots of moisture here, more rain coming tonight and into Tuesday. Even had a shower last evening. ;)
Next weekend the tomatoes go in. smiley_sun smiley_thumbsup
We had a couple chilly nights that slowed my peppers down but should have some next week.
Strawberries are almost ready and there's a ton of them . Strawberry Rhubarb pie next week. smiley_trap_drummer
Corn all up.Went down and thinned it today.I think every seed must have sprouted.When it gets about waist high I'll plant half runner beans beside each stalk.Cucumbers and watermelon on edge of garden.So far no potato bugs. :laugh:(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/E170A38B-0E33-4513-8909-DCABC1E439A7.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1655166364)
Looks like I might have some grapes this year.My little grandson will love these.(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/23EC81A2-5404-4DC4-A1CF-30A001A9801A.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1655168387)
My twice flooded out u.p. garden is showing signs of life!
Had to plant some beans over, too wet and cool, the seedlings rotted. Raining even now and looks wet for the next week and even on the cold side by Sunday. Holding off with the tomatoes until the next warm day in the 70's or more. Never seen so much water in a few years (2009-2011 was wet summers here). :D The funny thing is it dries up with 2 days of heat and sun. ;) Nothing is growing too swift, not enough heat yet.
That is good Jeff.
Peppers are in blossom here.
Lots of pepper blooms, even one pepper about 3" wide on one plant. But been too cool for much growing. 3 more days before summer. ;D
We have had over 11 inches of rain since putting in the garden. One event was 6 1/2 inches and took out a road a mile north of us. They're still working on repairs but the rain keeps them from making more progress than expected. The garden was going to be replanted but it keeps raining. It won't be as nice as last year. I've got sections of forest cleared from a windstorm. We did some tree salvage and ground work making trails that exposed areas of fertile peat type soil and decided to plant in the forest instead as a test. So far the forest plantings are doing better than the garden even though it was planted later.
I also planted 104 broccoli seedlings along the bank of a ditched treeline that was used as a skid trail during the salvage operation. They appear to have taken but time will tell.
3 days of high winds and gusts. All the plants are leaning on a 30 degree angle today with some leaves ripped off. Tons of strawberries 😋. Peas almost ready to pick.
We had winds that broke my squash plants I had put in the raised garden right off at the dirt.
My flooded out twice garden is becoming a mystery gift. The first flood wiped out all my planting markers, so when I replanted it wasn't the same. Well guess what? Stuff that was in the ground 3 weeks ago is starting to come up. i have a row of beans that I thought certainly drowned, coming up in my doible row of onion sets. Nothing looks great yet, but we have been having low 40s at night and it only got past 70° one day so far.
It's going to be 37 degrees at 4am. In the soaked Jardin. It's just not fair. :D
Got everything standing up straight and made a quick video
Garden 2022 Part 3 First Day Of Summer Look Around - YouTube (https://youtu.be/jsA2iQMaGlk)
Garden still doing good up here at starvation camp.Had two big storms last week but corn is still short and hilled up good so it didn't blow over.Saving up for some butter to put on them roast um ears :laugh:
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No way am I posting a photo of my current vegetative mayhem.
Go ahead and post some pictures.You'll probably get more produce than any of the rest of us.In the end that's all that matters.I had some beautiful potato plants last year and a blight hit them and didn't get but two bushel.Neighbors said "I bet you won't plant any next year ". I did because I've got more time than money and nothing to loose 😀
Quote from: Jeff on June 22, 2022, 05:35:31 PM
No way am I posting a photo of my current vegetative mayhem.
It's ok to post one Jeff. We have all been there. The first 10 years are the hardest.
I picked a bad year to move away from raised beds. We've had sun for the last couple of days and looks like normal weather ahead so it won't be a total loss. Right now, Pumpkins are the best plantings. They were last year's failure. I'll be happy if we can harvest them.
No pics because it's a garden year to salvage.
I know the vines need some heat and looks like low 80's for the weekend. I will be poking in the maters Saturday morning. Finally warming up. :)
At least the sky is sorta blue. The clay in the garden is either slime or rock hard. Impossible to weed. Hoe, rake, weed weasel, nothing works.
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Looks like some zukes there. And do I see a tomato plant? I picked 5 tomatoes this morning ahead of the 'Pudgy Joe' family (4) of ground hogs. They have ate a couple off the vines in the pots. The maters pretty much drowned out with the rain, so no more from them potted ones. :D
I'll be at the lettuce and dill this week and probably beat greens to eat next week. The new beans are starting up and look a lot better now that we have heat. Got all kinds of cukes up, should start taking off this week, most are at the cotyledon stage except 4 or 5 from the grow tent. I have one bell sizing up, but lots of blossoms on bells, jalapenos and travellers. Can't wait to jar up some dill pickles. :)
I sure don't know about what to do for bad soil, without cleaning out the bank account.
Might takes years to make it good.
Maybe buckwheat and other cover crop, winter rye is cheap.
Compost works, but looks like you need A LOT of it.
Only thing I have in blossom is peppers and peas.
Peas are almost ready, well if you eat shells and all they are ready.
Peppers are coming, I see ones about the size of a quarter.
Raised beds work wonders. I'd suggest don't bother with frames, just lay out where ya want your garden, slightly excavate paths such that beds end up about 4 ft wide, throw removed dirt from paths up on beds, use chips, sawdust, etc for paths, and watch stuff grow.
Works whether conditions are wet or dry
Add organic matter:. Which is best? The item you have or can get for next to nothing. Work material in in the fall. If not very decomposed, like wood chips or something, consider adding some nitrogen in the fall to help breakdown of tough woody stuff.
Good garden soil is crumbly. Compost-I like just leaf compost the best but any is good-or other organic matter is how you improve soil.
For small plots, consider spading in this material with a shovel in the fall. Nice big clods of turned over soil, organic matter buried, and the following planting season, that stuff will work up real nice.
Did all of the above for decades. Can't be beat for garden plots.
If you use mulch around your plants, this can be the organic material that then gets turned on in the fall.
mix green and brown for best decomposition. smiley_flowerhead
That's a good point Doc, Jeff will likely not have access to something like a municipal compost offering.
You're not typically raking leaves or generating lots of kitchen veggie/fruit scraps etc. up at a Northwoods cabin. Therefore...
....in a relatively remote situation, I'd mulch the garden with any bark, saw shavings, straw, or even just handfuls of weeds (pre-seedhead!), then turn this in in the fall. Don't be afraid to add a little nitrogen boost to the turned material, to aid in microbial breakdown of cellulosic materials. Heck, we humans need nitrogen in our diets too. We call it protein! (Now that's a gross oversimplification, huh Doc?) Those beneficial decay fungi are no different.
Add organic matter,make sure adequate N for decomposition, then do same in subsequent years. Any soil can be improved (except the rocks up at Ray's)😄.
I have been removing rocks out of my garden spot for 20 years.
Did some before that when my Dad had a garden here.
I keep a small plastic bucket on the handle of the tiller and pick up the rocks as I go. I've always been fussy in the garden, rocks as big as my finger nail get picked up.
I just put a border up on the end of the garden to keep the grass out.
That also took many loads of dirt, one bucket at a time, to make it work.
I buried a water line to the wind tunnel the year before that. The line is about 18 inches dep, tiller goes no more than a foot, if that.
I also have 2 trellises, one for the cherry tomatoes to climb on and another for whatever we want. This year it's morning glorys. Soaker hoses for the cukes and cherry tomatoes.
Homemade wooden 6 foot high cages for the tomatoes plants.
Jeff with tough soil like that cover crops will be your friend in a big way. Buckwheat is the quickest improvement of soil tilth I've used. Vigorous root system yet the plant is easy to terminate and work back into the soil helping organic matter.
For a legume this time of year in a garden you're using I'd recommend white clover. There's others I like more but won't work with crops already in place.
A winter cover crop that includes daikon radishes in the mix will also go along ways toward breaking that soil up. They don't winter over and should be put in 6-8 weeks prior to a killing frost. They survive down to about 15 degrees then they're done.
Ive put buckwheat up top, but it dont like all the rain we got. I'm still hoping it wins out over the weeds.
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Don't give up on the buckwheat. Wet years are tough. Around here it goes to seed quicker than weeds. I've had good luck getting multiple stands out of one seeding.
Once the buckwheat seeds out if you have a way to knock it down and create a little seed to soil contact it'll take off again.
I go in and disk it and it takes right back off, sometimes better than the first go round.
Just keep in mind it takes decades for Mother Nature to build quality soil.
Not given up yet. Some signs of life, even though another 1" rainfall 2 days ago.
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Update on the garden ;D
Bell pepper
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Traveller
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String beans
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Squash
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Cukes
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Lettuce and Dill
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Tomatoes
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Beats
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Carrots and Parsnips
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Enjoy gardening. ;)
Good to see those raised beds, Jeff. Now when the boards rot, consider not replacing them. Your knees will thank you.
I like a "shoulder" to kneel on when working the bed. I found board sides just got in the way.
Of course, there's that old saying about your mileage....👍
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Garden update.Picked about a half a five gallon bucket of cucumbers today and checked on potatoes.No sign of blight so far.Usually plow them out around Labor Day.Start on pickles in a few days.I make 14 day sweet pickles,my mothers recipe (https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/749B6CD6-8680-42D6-854E-71B86EC86F26.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1656876795)
We have corn in tassle, green maters by the hundreds and beans crawiling all over & close to first picking, okra in bloom, bell pepper big enough to eat and picked my first banana pepper yesterday. Got a granddaughter to help me tie more bean strings. Eaten a couple of cukes so far. Pulled my spring lettuce as it had bolted. Seems to be a garden year? Wife spotted a young ground hog in our corn-trap set but no luck so far. I can only shoot him in certain directions at my garden as there's a school bldg below my place.
I use jute as it rots and can be left behind in the soil so I don't waste time placing wire for bean vines that must be removed each year.
My DIL says Okra split lengthwise in the air fryer is VG, gonna try that as our new electric oven has that feature.
I see one of my least favorite weeds in a picture of Wlmedley garden potato above!
I have that weed too!!!
You guys referring to the purslane, the succulent-leaved weed that I think I'm seeing by the taters?
If so, know that it is edible. Crunchy juicy with quite a peppery taste.
The old-time Germans around here called it 'pussley". Taint bad in moderation.
That's one weed where if you pull it and toss randomly, it will happily re-root in its new spot and resume growing.
Never see it up here. Mostly just dandelion, lambs quarters, and hemp nettle and a couple other miner ones. Used to have chick weed, haven't seen it in years. Course, I don't let weeds get a hold anyway. ;D
I hear that some people even eat pig weeds, lamb quarters.
Yep, lambs is decent early season.
The corn that came up in my drowned field seems to be just barely languishing, looking like heavy yellow bladed grass
Mine look even worse. Knee high by July 4th my ankle because the 2 seeds that sprouted aren't that high yet. :D
Yeah, cold and wet June has done a number on the gardens for sure.
We had our first mess of beat greens tonight, fresh onion and lettuce for the salad. I ate my last grow tent tomato the other day. ;D
I think the cukes will bloom next week, the ones in the photo I started in the tent. The others will be awhile. ;)
I am tired of veggies already. Been eating peas, beans, chard, zucchini. strawberries, lettuce. bok choy, spinach, onions, peppers, beets, and beet greens lately. Still a week off till the first red tomatoes, eggplant, yellow squash, and cukes. Have had to water every night for the past couple weeks. It's just so dry here and todays storm split up right before it got to us just like all the previous ones. Fiber overload musteat_1 digin_2 food6 food1 digin1 pull_smiley smiley_smug01.
That's great eat'n. Couldn't get tired of that. ;)
We had 1-1/2" rain last night and this morning. More coming Friday. Never had to water this year, which is more normal for us up this way.
Buckwheat seems to grow when it quits raining for 2 days.
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The bees will be busy!!!!
Saw my first watermelon today.Won't get any until late September if frost doesn't get them.
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Had a long slender pepper (sweet pepper) on a ham sandwich last night with garden lettuce, dill and onion. There's a lot of peppers coming on here. We are still using frozen ones from last year in the cook'n. :)
Seen cuke flowers this morning. Bean plants are kicking in, awhile before flowers though. ;) We've had lots of rain this week 1-3/4" so far, more coming tonight.
Squash are looking good, they've got to 6 leaves now.
I've let the rhubarb rest this year and it has never blossomed yet. Huge plants, but no flowers. Other bunches around here have had flowers for awhile. Same strain of rhubarb. Behind the spruce hedge they spread like burdock. But they've been there over 100 years. ;D
Best salad we ever had! Honestly. Tammy and I both could not believe it. Who says that lettice was amazing?? We both did! Whether we get anything else from our yooper garden, this was a success!
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Our lettuce bolted over a month ago and been pulled up. Local farmers mkt last nite I bought sweet corn-ours in in tassel, june apples-deer eat my apples, few tomatoes- as ours are not red yet and some new small red potatoes. We have lots of beans but we have those but rather than wade in our mud we eat frozen beans for now. Okra is in bloom and mud as well.
The British use walk boards to avoid soil compaction, purist gardeners that they are-we stay out of ours right now.
Fresh lettuce from the garden can't be beat. I did notice that I only had one iceberg head this year. Yeah, they really grow like them in the store, only taste better and crunchier. ;D
We got a few peppers, the dog got one too. :D Took it right out of the box!!!
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Chomp'r up! :D :D
We had some of our garden carrots last night, fresh taters from the market. :)
Oven roasted new potatoes last nite. The tiny ones smaller than a golf ball cut in half, tossed in olive oil, salt & pepper and toaster oven baked to save the earth.
Zucchini we don't grow as they lack pizazz for us. I do worry about them taking over the earth though... :D
I see big beef maters as big as your finger tips, be awhile yet. ;D I see an inch long cuke with a blossom. :D
Our local farmers market has maters for sale-early varieties raised outside. For comparisons sake, our Burpee Beefsteak maters are about 5-6" in diameter now. We only have grape tomatoes red. My Russian Appletree tomatoes are loaded. They are the only one of around a dozen I bought from a lady in Ukraine off fleabay 2 years ago that we are growing. They grow in groups of many-say 4-8, in lengthwise strings. Canning size or lunch size.
Cukes are coming on in quantity now. beans to pick, "Vitality" & Peaches & Cream sweet corn at famers market, ours is showing early silks.
I've eaten 3 carmen long sweet peppers this week and I see at least a dozen more ready. I'm waiting for the jalapeno to size up to can some slices for sandwiches. :) We freeze a lot of the peppers for meat dishes. Gotta have pepper and onion on any decent meat dish. ;D
We are having a lettuce boom. Leaf and romaine all our neighbors up here have gardens so no one to share with. We have had big salads for supper the last 4 days.
Yeah, will need to take photos of a couple things here later. We had rain last evening so the grass is still wet. I don't like wet shoes. :D We have a type of romaine here that is doing good. I pulled one up to eat, to give the iceberg head some room to grow.
I planted some basal in a pot on the porch the other day, it's up this morning. The basal in the garden is a bug magnet. :D
Parsnip and carrots
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sweet momma winter squash
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Cuke
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Lettuce and dill
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Tomatoes
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Carmen slender (sweet)
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Bells
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String beans
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Nice looking 👍
Nice looking is right!!!
I grow basil under crop cover. That keeps the bugs away.
We mostly dry ours.
Takes a lot to get a little. :o
We just picked our last lettuce today and it's a great treat. Been enjoying it for months plus easy to grow in a tent all winter.
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Just picked the last of the peas and they were great this year. The Lilian's Caseload peas are our favorite. We are still in drought conditions and watering every day. All the onions love the sunshine and are the size of softballs now. A garden sure saves a lot of money on groceries. Dang animals ate our raspberries on the new plants >:(
Quote from: Jeff on July 10, 2022, 09:46:23 AM
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That look you have reminds me of after I have eaten 100 zucchinis and can't eat another ;D .
I shredded zucchini once for a zucchini cheesy bread fingers recipe. mmmm :)
Best Zucchini Cheesy Bread Recipe - How to Make Zucchini Cheesy Bread (https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a54806/zucchini-cheesy-bread-recipe)
My helper on Wed had some of his Mom's homemade zucchini bread and offered me some which I broke off a bite. It was tasty but honestly I'm certain it would taste exactly the same minus the squash but has a few more vitamins with the squash inside. Google tells me they are very good for you, so they do have a purpose in life beyond me not loving them as not so tasty.
Without the spices it's just about tasteless. Now winter squash with some butter has some taste. Course in a pie, you add pie spice to it to. :D
As with any food, it is how it's prepared and what you add to it on how it tastes.
Yep, even dill weed, a little vinegar added either in pickles or from mustard on the sandwich really drives the flavor.
Harvest is stepping up dug some taters
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Garlic
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And still thinning out the small onions.
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Garden 2022 Harvesting Some Garlic, Potatoes, And An Onion - YouTube (https://youtu.be/Kn1nsFQfo6g)
Last Week Peas and Beans
Garden 2022 Picking Lillians Caseload Peas And Strike Beans - YouTube (https://youtu.be/Xk0Ow0RIzXQ)
Looks like it will be a good year
I put 5 gallons of cucumbers in crocks today for 14 day pickles.Wasn't going to plant any beans this year but saw them selling half runner beans at farmers market for $75 a bushel.Maybe I'll plant a few rows.
Beans are high this year. Suspect it's the labor cost involved in getting them from the field to saleable product yet can't be certain
Your probably right.Takes quite a while to pick a bushel of beans.Heard they were getting $100 a bushel at the market a little farther north but not sure.
String beans guys? or baking beans? Seed has been high here forever. String bean seed is running $16-50 per pound. I think it is a lot of work to process bean seed. Someone has to be paid and make money. Bake beans are $15 a pound, yellow eye, Jacob's cattle and soldier are the staple varieties here. Been used here for ever. I think those bake beans are easy to thresh. Mom's uncle used to just whack'm on the inside of a 5 gallon pale. A friend of ours can't even buy them out in British Columbia. And they don't grow well in his local climate, too dry and sandy. I knew a local Indian who kept seed (Jacob's cattle) year after year from great great grandfather's. He was the first homesteader near there. She was about 100 years old before she passed.
One of our regular sources for heirloom beans seeds is: www.appalachianheirloomplantfarm.com
They had zero beans seeds for sale for 2022 planting as their 2021 growing season was too wet.
One of our beans we save seed on and had not grown for a while, we planted some old seeds, they came up well and when wife cooked a mess, but they were bad. Now I need to find out if the namesake for that bean has any to share?
Swamp I'm referring to string beans. And yes our seed cost went up over 30 percent. Some varieties weren't available either.
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String beans.Around here they call them half runners.They need something to climb on.
Ours that we grow are bush type, they don't climb. ;)
Here is my update on my first attempt at growing a garden here at our place in the U.P. It's been an uphill battle, just to get to the bottom of the hill! But I wouldn't trade the time. I love my place, and what I do not get right this year, if the good Lord allows, then there will be next year. 3 and a half floods, a very big hail storm, and now that things are looking up out there, ever bit slightly, THE CRITTERS ARE HERE! :)
I do enjoy sharing the fruits (and the many failures too) of my labors here in the U.P.
2022 Yooper Flooded Garden. UPDATE: BATTLE OF DA CRITTERS! - YouTube (https://youtu.be/Tvzwt81tVOE)
Very cool. you get what you get and you don't throw a fit! pre-school saying. Sunflower it the Ks state flower!.. thanks jeff!
Yep, gotta make the best of it and learn every year. ;D We got some more rain last night, that makes an inch this week. More coming later today they say. The ground here is soft once worked. Lots of gravel stones though, no end to them. :D
Quote from: Wlmedley on July 16, 2022, 10:14:35 AM
String beans.Around here they call them half runners.They need something to climb on.
Half runners are considered to be a pole bean which climbs. Calling a bean a corn field bean vs. a pole bean means the exact same thing, i.e., that they need something to climb on. The recent stringless U of TN developed "Volunteer half-runner" climbs some but not nearly as much as the original ones.
We have some growing now and as gardeners who never, ever, grow stringless beans we are holding our breath to see how they taste.
We also grow an heirloom bean from the KY Salt River area called the Grandpa Bishop bean. They are a version of a half runner that has no "bad bean" issues as do the old-time half runners which resulted in the newer types.
Saying string bean to me means only that it requires "stringing" to eat them, not that you must provide a string or poles or corn for them to climb.
Some heirloom bean seed sellers refuse to sell beans without strings.
Bush beans grow w/o anything to climb on. As an e.g. a lima bean can be both a climber or a bush bean, has nothing to do with the actual general type of bean flavor wise or shape.
IMO, if you grow Blue Lake type stringless beans you might as well buy your beans at Walmart or Krogers? ;D
Gardening is a war zone activity, between bugs, animals and weather it's a tough proposition. But it's a healthy activity, if you're up for the stress :D
Good start Jeff but you really took on a lot for the first year. Be happy with what you get, learn, and move on because every year is different for a garden. Raised beds and compost are the easiest way to have a chance for a harvest if mother nature, bugs, and animals cooperate. An old Troy Bilt tiller would help get the large plot in shape with a little organic matter.
If you dig out your pond someday, put the sludge on the garden. if you can move dirt, you could build up the garden area, or plant on hills so they do not flood as bad, assuming this area was not under 3 feet of water. scuba-smiley smiley_flowerhead smiley_flowerhead smiley_flowerhead food3 smiley_beertoast
I have to be very careful what I do here, as this is a watershed very close to lake huron and the st. Marys river.
Big storm came through last night and leveled my corn.It's a mess.May be able to stand some back up when it quits raining but I'm not looking forward to it.Was going to plant half runner beans and let them climb corn but now I'm glad I didn't.Win some,lose some.All a part of gardening I guess.Still have potatoes and pumpkins in that patch.
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At least I'll have some paw paws this fall
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I'm sorry to say, welcome to my world. :-\
Yeah, that's a real bummer.
My main garden here is quite sheltered from most things except big hail stones. :-X Luckily that is not common here. Getting more rain tonight and into tomorrow and again Thursday afternoon. In the mid 80's this week, warmest week so far this summer.
Thinned my parsnips yesterday. They stay in the ground over winter, harvest in spring. Been working at the carrots and beats and eating the thinnings as well. Been chomping down peppers in salad and sandwich. :D
Eat well, happy gardening. :)
Wlmedley that stinks. Mother nature can be cruel to gardeners. I had that happen years ago when I had the open garden and was able to stand them back up by hilling good when the ground was still wet with no loss.
Pawpaws are very tasty! Picked these from wild trees in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina.
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My non human food planting of buckwheat was looking better today. Also, yesterday I measured my largest sunflower, and it was 5'-5" today it was 5' 10"!
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What do Paw paws taste like?
Place looks great 👍
Paw paws taste a lot like a banana but you have to wait till they get ripe which is in the fall.They are almost black when ripe.My Grandma loved them and could spot one a long ways off.
Thanks! Interesting 👍
The buckwheat looks good.
Got a tiller?
I wonder if winter rye would help this fall.
I plan on seeding brassicas and clover into the standing buckwheat in about two weeks. I'll then roll and crush with the water weighted roller Gene gave me and spray with glysophate. The other half will be just clover. First of september I'll top dress with winter rye. This should get my clover going for next spring.
Notill. If you till here I found, you get clay. The buckwheat was notill
To me, pawpaws taste like the marriage of a banana and a mango.
Update Your Browser | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyBrokaw/videos/5374564569275724/?s=cl&fs=e)
I saw a field of buckwheat planted in Freedom, ME today.
Made me think of Jeff.
It's been hot and the sun has been out the last couple days and amazingly most of my corn has stood back up.It's not pretty but I think I'll get a pretty good crop if tonight's storm doesn't blow it back down 🙈
Had 1-1/2" rain for the garden on Tuesday, along with the heat in the 80 this week stuff is going bananas. ;D
SD, I did not know that you could grow bananas in New Brunswick :D.
Only if you are a Monkey!
Happy Birthday Jeff 8)
Picked the Shallots today. Spread out drying. Can't believe how many I got from that one small raised bed. Some are giants.
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Starting to get eggplants and cukes now
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And, a sneaky squash wormed its way in there ;D.
Wow! So impressive!
Lots of good eaten in them shallots. The onions here are doing well also, even the ones I started early from seed in the grow tent. We don't harvest until September. Should be about 4" across, of course there are always some smalls because of various things. :)
The one time I tried eggplant in the garden, the potato beetle came calling. Around here your up against potato fields so anything 'night shade' is a target. They will even hit tomatoes, but only as a last resort. I remember one year when seed potatoes were harvested next door the beetles invaded the tomatoes, they eat stem and all, not just leaves. :D
Got to do some tomato pruning this weekend. I should have a cuke to eat by Sunday, I'm hoping to get a bunch of smalls for dill pickles.
Talon onion, the tops are nearly waste high.
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String beans in flower
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Sweet Momma winter squash just beginning to flower, just bud stag now.
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Bells coming along
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More Carmen Slenders
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Already been freezing peppers, more than anyone deserves. :D
I pruned the tomatoes yesterday. They were getting quite bushy and tall with lots of side suckers. Lots of fruit to size up.
Freezing eggplant today
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Fried Zucchini and eggplant along with some fresh refrigerator pickles and the best black cherry tomatoes ever for lunch today
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Meatless day so far :o.
First batch of 14 day sweet pickles in jars. I have another three gallon crock full.They will be ready to put in jars Wednesday.A lot of work to produce but can't buy in any store.The only place I have ever found them is at farmers market and they want $10 a pint.Here's a $130 dollars worth.I have more time than money 😀
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Looks great.
Still waiting for my first cuke here, got some growing to do. The vines grew this week, the baby cukes never did much. When they do kick in, wham, I'll have a barrel full. ;D
Not seeing any pollinators much.
More pickles and I dug a few new potatoes for dinner yesterday.
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Hope to salvage a little corn from my patch that got blew down.Corn at farmers market selling for $8 a dozen.Hard to believe.
Nice taters and pickles. What variety of taters? :)
Local farm market corn here has been high before this, $8 and more a dozen. Darn corn seed has been high for years. They want a small fortune for less than a handful of seed, that includes all the mushed seed in with it, last I bought. :D
Kennebec potatoes. I planted silver queen sweet corn.Last year corn did pretty good but we have had several bad wind storms this summer.Guess I'll take whatever I can get.Can't remember what seed cost I used what I had leftover from last year.
We could not get Kennebec seed taters at the store this year.
First picking of beans and some sweet peppers.
I think the hardware store here still has potato seed at the store entrance. We probably don't carry Kennebec here, we usually have a different selection of tater seed up here.
We actually got to eat something that grew in the flooded clay garden!
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The only thing that we are getting from our garden is Squash and Tomatoes. I actually think that is OK since that is all that we planted. ::)
My winter squash is blooming and starting to run. I've had to turn some vines to head out away from the garden. It wants to climb the fencing. :D
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Tomatoes are sizing up a little since I pruned. Might even be ripening, they seem to have an orange yellow hue. String securing the plant to stakes. Beefstake.
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My pickles passed the taste test today.My little grandson is a picky eater and it's hard to get him to slow down and eat anything.Ate one pickle an had to have another.That's proof enough for me.
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Good stuff. ;)
3 - 16 oz jars of jalapeno rings canned by water bath method. Garlic and peppercorn in the brine.
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Looks great. We should have a batch of Nadapenos to pickle soon. I am so tired of watering. Every night for atleast an hour. I can't keep enough water on everything and cukes are dying. Hopefully the drought will be over soon.
I use a couple soaker hoses. Should of had more.
I have a over head sprinkler that does most of the garden.
I have 2 tomatoes that are just about ready.
Sweet peppers are ready.
Happy Birthday 21. is that your age? :)
Yes, sweet peppers have been eaten here for 2 weeks now. Bell and Carmen Slenders. Have had to freeze some. Still waiting for a ripe tomato here, lots of good sized ones slowly turning that are 4" wide (Big Beef).
Been eating carrots and beets (and greens) now. Hoping for some string beans next weekend. I see some tiny beans on the green ones. But there's thousands of blossoms. They sure took a beating this spring with the cold and rain and that was June. :D
I've counted 12 squash, that will be squash, on the vines. I've got 6 foot vines running out into the grass now. My patch is small here, but it sure does put out squash. I never had frost last fall until I cleaned up the garden in Mid October. Never hit the squash or peppers.
Looks like more rain by Tuesday evening from thunder clappers.
Picked some peppers and onions today to cook up with sausages.
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So many peppers this year. Some of my corn didn't pollinate well but it's still good
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Had a BLT for lunch. Those Paul Robensens have the best flavor of any tomato
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Poor eggplants are being destroyed by flea beetles and my strawberry plants, elderberry trees, pear trees, and apple trees are being eaten by this culprit.
There she is. The garden thief. - YouTube (https://youtu.be/5-cbntkpTUc)
Looky what I found!! I gotta get this tested.
When I tried to scoop into the dirt piled around the pond, the grass mats were so dense my little trip bucket just glanced off. After a year of mowing and irradication, Im able to dig into them the big pile seems to be dense red-grey clay, but some of it was rich and black. My goal was to start pulling something onto all the exposed spruce roots on my trail there when I found I have something besides clay.
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great garden soil. may need to dream up a way to dredge the pond, as long as it will seal over. I did that to my pond and found 55 full size coi, from the 12 farm store fish bait goldfish I had put in a few years earlier. it was 30 feet round and silted to only a few feet deep. I spent skid loader time and made a 30 by 60 rectangle with a slope at one end, and a 6-foot-deep end. filled it half with water and turn it off to go to work. tossed in the happy fish. got home from work and it drained out and all the fish dead. may need the clay to seal it back up. put all the soil dredge on the garden.
Lots of organic in it. It might be a little sour from wet softwood forest, but not necessarily so. White cedar likes to grow on top of lime or calcareous rocks. I suspect that was the original forest around there before the tamarack.
Doc, that gives new meaning to planting on a dead fish.
I know right now I have a washtub of string beans ready to pick. :D Will have a small feed tomorrow for dinner along with the fresh carrots, and taters. Beets are almost 2" across now, not quite, but about ready to pickle. Today is a hamburger, from a local gal who raises beef. She's no youngster at 75 and farm tough. ;D Still waiting for a tomato to ripen. ;)
Did up a 2 lb recipe of dill pickles this morning, water bath method.
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String beans by the bushel. ;D
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Do you want yellow...?
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or green..?
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Squash update.
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I picked 2 tomatoes. I can share with ya. :D
3 pints of green salsa this morning.
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Finally pulled the onions a couple days ago. Boy are they good. Better flavor then vidalias that used to be my favorite. No rain yet. Everything is bone dry and my fruit trees are dying.
Garden 2022 Picking Onions, Curing Shallots And Garlic For Winter Storage - YouTube (https://youtu.be/XgkHhHTUs4U)
Great looking onion harvest. Can't complain about that. ;) Tops are still green here and growing. The ones I started in the grow tent are growing just as fast as the sets I had. I won't pull mine until September.
Finally getting some corn.About half laying down but still producing.
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Canned up 12 pints of string beans. Going to pickle some next, mustard pickle. ;D
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That corn didn't turn out so bad. ;)
We got lazy and froze our beans this year. Got a dehydrator full of principe drying tomatoes going today.
Broccoli is acting kinda odd this year and another person asked me about it.
I cut the first head off and years past at least one will start to sucker out and start to grow. Not this year. I have nothing on one plant. I cut the head off another plant tonight, we'll see how that goes.
Tomatoes are just coming now. I planted 3-4 different types of cukes. We had 3-4 pickings so far,
Dill is not doing nothing this year. Most years that stuff booms. Did not really get many plants that just came up all over the garden either this year.
Peppers seem kinda thin walled this year. i was laid up and Brenda took care of them. I guess they would rather have me take care of them. :D
Has it been dry in your area this year?
Oh yea. Dry.
But I have an over head sprinkler that has seen some heavy use. But that's not the same.
Looks like Wed we will have a steady rain.
Peppers are grown in a small wind tunnel. So we control the watering. Them things never seem to change, except for this year.
I agree fully cfarm , I've literally pumped millions of gallons this summer trying to keep plants going. It doesn't even come close to a rain that Mother Nature lays down.
Use creek water, that's way better than well water on the garden. Like pouring on fertilizer and not ice cold. ;)
I only had to haul water one day this year, 100 gallons worth. Going to be wet here Wednesday afternoon into Friday.
Did some mustard bean pickles today, 4 - 16 oz jars. Will do 3 or 4 more later.
I've been using pond and brook water mostly. What land doesn't have pumpable water has been getting municipal, that gets spendy FAST.
A year like this you use what's available no matter what temperature it is. Desperate times call for desperate measures :)
This has been the wettest summer I can remember here.A pretty good day up here at starvation camp.I gave my neighbor a couple dozen ears of corn and a couple pumpkins and she gave me a 18 carton of fresh eggs.Probably dig my potatoes in a week or two.Finally cooling down a little.Fall is on the way 🙂
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Nice looking produce, good size ears of corn.
Would've gladly sent some dry weather your way in exchange for a little rain. Prefer a dryer year for growing stuff but this year can go kick rocks for all I care. Been absolutely no rain to speak of for months. Trying to keep stuff growing well especially certain varieties of the sweet corn has been a challenge to say the least. Keeping the store stocked and market trucks full for the most part not exactly sure however.
Did 3 more pints of dill pickles. I cracked open a jar of earlier ones.....mmm my goodness, like eating candy. :D :D The cucumbers have not produced any surplus this year, which is unusual, due to a cold wet June where they struggled to get going. No scarcity of water for sure up this way. Rain and showers for 3 days now.
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Holy cow Jeff, ya gotta let me know where ya got the bandana seed. I would have never guessed it could be grown this far north. :)
:D
Not half bad on the corn Jeff, you might get a ripe ear before frost. Chet's jealous ya know. ;D
You blanching and freezing your string beans?
Im not blanching. Just freezing. My understanding of blanching is to maintain color over time, not so much taste. We do blanch our corn on the cob.
Made 5 quarts of apple sauce, probably 5 more today. So far I have had 15 zucchini off those two plants and many more babies on the way. I was getting blossom end rot until I added some of my powdered egg shells, and it went right away.
My flooded corn is really surprising me down there. I counted 30 ears on the stalks that made it so far,
Yes, like you say for the color.
30 ears if they mature is a good family corn boil cookout. ;D
Yep, blossom end rot is a sign of low calcium. Happens to maters and peppers to. In the grow tent I have to use calcium nitrate.
Tammy's pampered chef grinder blender turns my egg shells into smoke. Well, almost. It is so fine that when you open the bag, it smokes. It took no time for it to make a difference.
We always blanch beans before freezing. Considering the conditions you dealt with Jeff it looks like a nice haul.
We haven't had rain in about 3 months now. Just watched the weather and possibly 1 to 2 inches tonight and tomorrow. Going out to do a rain dance later 🌧🌧☂️.
Let me know what time the rain dance starts. It won't be pretty but I'll dance the night away if it'll make it rain :D
I think Monday is slated to be cloudy and then wet the rest of the week up here. Raining in far western Maine now, in the hills.
Quote from: newoodguy78 on August 21, 2022, 03:37:28 PM
Let me know what time the rain dance starts. It won't be pretty but I'll dance the night away if it'll make it rain :D
It worked 🌧🌧🌧🌧🌩🌩🌩🌦🌦🌦⛈
Well I'm happy for you. How much did you get?
We barely got a sprinkle here, barely enough to make your boots wet enough to change shades after walking through the grass.
Heard they got some to the East and North of us. Been that way all season here every storm splits and misses us.
Pickled 4 more 16 oz jars of mustard bean pickles today. 8)
Was a fine mist out at work in the hills all day, did not do much at the house. Wet all week here is the forecast and clearing Saturday.
Quote from: newoodguy78 on August 22, 2022, 06:43:41 PM
Well I'm happy for you. How much did you get?
We barely got a sprinkle here, barely enough to make your boots wet enough to change shades after walking through the grass.
Heard they got some to the East and North of us. Been that way all season here every storm splits and misses us.
Stopped at noon today. Rain gauge had 1 1/2" in it. I see some green in the grass again. 8)
Well may have to keep you in mind to do your dance a little more often :D. Late afternoon and after dark we got some of that very odd wet substance falling from the sky. Between the two showers I'm guessing maybe 3/4". Took my rain gauge down awhile ago because it was filled with dust. Not a lot but more than this immediate area has seen in well over a month.
Isn't it amazing how a rain like you just got will green things up so fast.
This year has proven to me irritating will keep things going to a certain extent, yet no matter how much you pump there's no replacement for natural rainfall.
Eating my first vine ripe tomato today on a hamburger. Big fat juicy beefsteak on beef. :D
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Looks good!! Since your so big against store vegetables I hope the burger 🍔 isn't pumped full of antibiotics
Local farm raised, a gal 74 years old. She rents land near here on a neighbor, I can watch them graze. ;) Didn't see that coming did ya? :D No these animals aren't raised to be ginormous critters. There's three sources for beef within 4 miles of here.
6 - 16 oz jars of dill pickles done up this morning.
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very nice representation of the Kansas state flower, and the Troop 1 from Hutchinson oldest regional troop at 105 years old. Thanks Jeff.
Wettest summer on record here.Dug my potatoes and only got 3 bushel.A lot of them had rotted in the ground.Plenty enough for me and my wife but was hoping to give some away.Pumpkin vines had mostly died but got several pumpkins.Going to dig sweet potatoes before long.First year rabbits haven't eaten vines back.Hope to get several.Need to smooth out potato patch and plant some turnips.Falls almost here.I'm ready for some cooler weather but don't like short days.
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What would you get for a potato yield in a normal growing season?
I only planted about 1/2 bushel of potatoes I had left over from last year.From the size of my patch I thought maybe I would get 8 to 10 bushel but that was wishful thinking.If it hadn't been so wet I would probably have gotten 6 bushel.They are selling at farmers market for $40 a bushel so I'm happy.
I began to pick my "Woke lima beans" yesterday :D. They are a pole lima that vines on poles/string and mostly picked when hulls dry to a tan color and crisp.
They are called Aunt Violet's Multicolored Lima/butterbean. An heirloom bean from Banks Co, GA grown by the Violet Brady Westbrook family for 4 generations. They are productive and tasty beans.
The woke part comes from the many, many colors they come in as you pop open a hull you never know which colors it will hold.
I have lots of green ones and vines haven't yellowed yet so should have a bumper crop growing until frost.
I might not grow it next year as I have a few others to try, a couple that are a bigger bean than these ones. Butterbeans and limas are not the staple bean in KY that string beans are.
Pole, corn field, bush and most any string beans are like a religion here! Seed sellers sell them by a bushels and barrels full of seeds, especialy during covid which has seen gardens even more common.
We planted Tiger Stripe bush beans you dry to eat, but crows pulled them all up, so that's one for next spring.
Did you see the guy in last nites news who grew a giant pumpkin in WI, hollowed it out, climbed in, and paddled it 38 miles down a river for the Guinness record book.
I saw the pumpkin boat too. :)
:D Pumpkin boat. Hey, if it'll float, go for it. ;D
Soon be picking a squash to sample in the kitchen. Got my eye on a couple just about ready.
Love'n them beefsteak tomatoes, they are quite sweet right off the vine. You don't get that from a store bought. ;)
Nice taters there, nothing beats a baked potato with some butter on it, especially a russet variety. ;D I like home made fries baked, way better than those grease soaked fries out of a bag. ;) We get 50 lb bags of Norkoda or Goldrush here for $14 from a local farmer. But he won't be harvesting those variety for a couple weeks so we buy 10 lb pricier ones at the market in town. Even then they are a bargain, lots of good eaten. Will keep ya from starv'n to death. ;) We've had some parsnip, but to do it proper they need to over winter, dig in the spring time or late fall before freeze up. Then the flavour comes out, and much sweeter. ;)
String beans are a staple around here to, every garden I seen over the years have string beans. I can even remember gardens with baking beans, mainly soldier or Jacob's cattle. Used to be able to buy them canned up here (Green Giant did yellow eye), but Maine is the only place handy you can get them canned. They have gotten a bit pricey. Most canned beans are them pea beans, which most of us old beaners refuse to buy. Stuck in our ways. :D
Plucked a squash from a vine this morning to sample. 6.5 lb'er :)
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We grow only one hybrid mater, the rest are open pollinated types. We like Burpee's oldest version of the hybrid beefsteaks called "Supersteak". This year we had some that were two hands to pick and hold plus the flavor is superb. Arkansas Traveler remains an heirloom favorite, but others try to change our minds. :D Our vines have now quit for the year as the unbelievable rainy period blighted them all, after a bumper crop before those rains. Gotta buy some at the farmers market later today.
1 lb onions. These are 3-1/2" in width.
Sturon grown from sets.
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Talon grown from seed in trays and transplanted seedlings.
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mmm good stuff. :)
First squash pie of the season cooked up this morning. Tenderflake crust.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/squash-pie-Sep3-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662209305)
Planning on some Lady Ashburnham or Lady Rose relish (without cauliflower) from the cucumbers, maybe this week. :)
We've made several batches of sweet relish with our veggies. Last year was other relishes called called Chow/chow & one made with green maters, celery, onions and no cukes my wifes family has made for a very long time. Bumper mater crop so we had to end up making more ketchup than most years. Lots different than the store version-we give lots away, plus a batch of Chili Sauce from my Mom's recipe-I love that stuff on a burger!
Were down to pumpkins and beans now & a few peppers. Heavy rains have most market maters gone as well but still they have sweet corn to sell.
We've definitely made chow chow in the past, it was a common preserve in these parts. Been freezing peppers most all summer to use on meat dishes.
We don't have the tomatoes this year, low on pollinators. Although this past week I saw some European honey bees working some wild flowers. I have no idea who has them, has to be the neighbor. I might also have a nest of them again in the maple tree, I'm not sure on that yet. I don't see any paper nest like wasps build. But I see traffic going in and out of the main trunk.
Four 16 oz jars of fresh spaghetti sauce this morning.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/spaghetti-sauce-Sept2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662902815)
We've harvested the onions now. I'd say we've harvested 80 lbs. Those sacks are 10 lb'ers. Still drying. Been a great year for onions, I especially like the ones I started from seed to transplant, worked out very well. Lots of 1 lb onions. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/onion1-sept11-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662927639)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/onion2-sept11-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662927639)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/onion3-sept11-2022.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662927639)
Some nice looking stuff 👍
I do like onions!!!
Those look good.
Dug my sweet potatoes today.I guess they like wet hot weather.Got a bushel from 6 plants.Pretty big I was happy.
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(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/68995/EF77A966-2710-473C-B258-EE5CE44841F2.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1663111913)
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Peppers, peppers, and more peppers. I must have over 100 pounds of peppers
Emerald giant stuffers
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2166.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119549)
Stuffed giant peppers. That's my wife's jumbo baking dish
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2178.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119571)
Anaheim Chilies for the freezer
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2169.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119556)
My wife loves the teddy bear sunflowers and cuts them for the house
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2163.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119533)
Pickled sweet peppers
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2162.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119529)
Quartered mixed red heirloom tomatoes
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2159.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119518)
Freezer peppers. We chop them and freeze.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2151.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119513)
Black panther edamame (very nutty flavor. Steam them and they have the flavor of boiled peanuts)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2145.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119496)
Another basket of peppers. Jimmy Nardelio pimento, Ashe Pimento, Habanadas, Red Banana, California Wonder
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2140~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119493)
Thick wall Di Cuneo peppers for the freezer. Make awesome small stuffed peppers in the winter.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_2031.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119471)
San Marzano plum tomatoes.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_1979~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119461)
Pickled sweet onions. One regular and the other bread and butter onions.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34694/IMG_1975.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1663119452)
Have about 30 pounds of ajvarski peppers to pick, roast, and can tomorrow. Never had so many peppers. Probably over 100 pounds from a couple plants. They really liked the hot dry weather and being watered everyday. Next week digging the sweet potatoes, beets, and carrots. Have to cure the sweets in the grow tent again. Last years got soo sweet from the cure.
Looks colorful and fantastic!!
You got the mother lode there on the sweet potatoes, those look great.
Peppers, I love peppers, we've got lots frozen to do for an entire year and then some. But no 100 lbs, I'd never eat that many in 10 years. :D Have only done stuffed peppers a couple of times, they are great, but usually just prefer them in the cooking of meat or on sandwiches. I do have 4 cans of jalapeno rings for evening sandwiches during the winter. Peppers are still producing here, but right now using them fresh as the need arises, no more preserving. You've got lots of eat'n to do. ;D
4- 16 oz jars of Lady Rose relish.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/lady-rose-relish-Sept13-202.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663148857)
Finally done with peppers. Just finished canning the Ajvarskis
Garden 2022 Canning Red Peppers And A Look Back At The Last Couple Weeks - YouTube (https://youtu.be/XTNbr51hL6I)
Finally the end is in sight
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Some guy by the name of Neilson keeps sending me cash in the mail. Got another $5 bill just for filling out a simple form saying Newsmax is the only channel we watch anymore. He is helping me cover the cost of inflation :o
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Picked the squash this morning, had 6 left, used 2 already before today. Largest was 7 lb this year. Not as great a harvest as last two years, but don't want a mountain of squash anyway. Low pollination this year for lack of bees, cold very wet June gave them a slow start. Be making another squash pie soon.
Well another season is over. Almost all cleaned up and the garlic is in. Found a giant beet when I pulled the last of them and had to try cooking it to find out if it was actually edible
Man Versus Beet - YouTube (https://youtu.be/wAiBP_We9QY)
Root cellar is packed full and ready for some rest after finishing cleaning up the leaves. Fun to watch everyone's progress in threads like this.
Oh yeah, them big ones are edible for sure. But take forever to cook'm. My cousins brought mother some 3 or 4 lbers a couple years ago. :D They cooked and made good pickles, but for ever to cook up. ;)
Cleaned out the gardens here a month ago. If only summer was longer, a barrel full of green tomatoes got mulched into the garden. ;D
21 you cannot beet that! :)
Quote from: doc henderson on November 02, 2022, 07:17:39 AM
21 you cannot beet that! :)
It beet me, I couldn't finish the good 3 pounds of it 😮. I now know that beets could be the cause of the next TP shortage 😬.
Only thing still growing up here at starvation camp is turnips.Planted them in potato patch.Some about the size of a baseball.Cooked a couple sweet potatoes.Took a hour and a half to get them done but they have sweetened up pretty good.Usually are at there best around Thanksgiving.
I do have a row of parsnip still in the ground. We dig them in the spring time. That's the only time they are good after they have wintered. I only plant enough carrots to eat from the garden because they don't keep unless refrigerated or a root cellar. Keeping the bagged onions outside where it is cool until we get freezing temps to harden the ground. Basement hovers around 65F, too warm for root veg except potatoes and onion. Talon onion are suppose to be the best storing onion in these parts, the onions I started from seeds.
We love Vidalia onions and this year we've been able to buy them even now, when in the past they were long gone by fall as a very poor storage onion. Years past we got sweet & mild vidalia tpye onions from Peru.
I wonder what technology thjey came up with in GA that now allows us to buy Vidalia's?
Sweet potatoes I've seen in storage in NC commercial growing areas were piled high in metal buildings. I quit growing them as weather made them a dicey item in our garden. They tasted the same to me from early to late, didn't ever sense they got sweeter?
It's my understanding a true vidalia onion has to be grown in a certain part of Georgia. It has to do with the soil type in that region. The onion growers in that area did a good job of marketing their product. What's changed as far as genetics in them to help them last I'm not sure.
We grow a couple varieties of onions that are comparable in taste if not sweeter but no where near the size of commercial Vidalias. Sipalini? (Not positive of the spelling)Is one that comes to mind. Excellent sweeter type onion but doesn't hold super well. Customers seek them out when available.
We buy a few vidalia onion in the spring time before it warms up enough for trees to make leaves. But our onions keep well, and we eat every last one unless one has a disease or something. I eat lots of onions here, can't imagine a day going by without an onion in something. :)
SwampDonkey reminds me of "Bad Bob" the guy who tried kill (Paul Newman) Judge Roy Beane in the movie. In that scene, Bad Bob took a chomp of a big raw onion before he tried to do his deed, then the judge blew a hole in Bob that the next view was of a barn you could see thru the hole in Bad Bobs body.
Hillbilly's here bouts eat sliced onions on the side with beans, any kind of beans. Hard to cook w/o an onion.
To be legally called a Vidalia, that type of onion, that can be grown elsewhere, must have been grown in that specific county in GA. The one's from Peru seem to be very close to the very mild Vidalia's.
I have wondered how the airlines who charge an arm & a leg for any luggage now, come up with affordable space for all the Southern Hemisphere stuff? It's very common in past decade or so from NZ, Peru and Chile-apples, grapes, citrus and onions and a few other items.
Chile and Peru produce comes by container ship through the Panama Canal and into Philadelphia and trucked to the Ontario Food Terminal.
Quote from: SwampDonkey on November 05, 2022, 03:39:42 PM
Chile and Peru produce comes by container ship through the Panama Canal and into Philadelphia and trucked to the Ontario Food Terminal.
A ship of highly perishable fruit seems undoable to me? Bananas they can gas but grapes, pears are they able to be held that long? Onions, even sweet types I can visualize them by ship.
After some reading I see that refrigerated ships is the answer for perishable fruits. Chile & Peru are taking over many areas of foods in off seasons. Many North American ports are involved.
Well, here's a grape's journey from down there. ;)
What your fruit has been through: A green grape's journey through a global supply chain on edge | Financial Post (https://financialpost.com/news/economy/what-your-fruit-has-been-through-a-green-grapes-journey-through-a-global-supply-chain-on-edge)