2024 Garden Seeds and Starts

[SwampDonkey]

Your onions look great. The blue taters are interesting, looks like a great meal. 

[thecfarm]

Onions!!!!

[newoodguy78]

Great looking onions 21. Do you have a fertilizer program or is that strictly compost producing that kind of results?

Swamp your onions look to be coming along quite well too. 

We battled the weeds in ours but well get a decent crop in the end. 

[SwampDonkey]

6 pints of pepper relish fresh out of the canner. Uses 6 lbs of bell peppers and 1-1/2 lbs of onions. 

[SwampDonkey]

On my onions  I use mostly rotten manure and very light fertilizer when planting and another light toss 4-6 weeks later. Triple 10.

[21incher]

Freezing eggplant today. Those Rosa Bianca are soo sweet and freeze excellent

Great looking onions 21. Do you have a fertilizer program or is that strictly compost producing that kind of results?

Swamp your onions look to be coming along quite well too.

We battled the weeds in ours but well get a decent crop in the end.

Compost. I put 5 buckets of compost in each bed. I tried some  fertilizer from the Amish store a couple years ago and they grew too big too fast and did not store well or have the same crispness. Compost seems to be the best fertilizer and keeps them around 2 pounds with long storage and nice texture.  The Ailisa Craig's will grow to 5 pounds but the bigger the shorter the storage life. I plant them so close there's no room for weeds.

[21incher]

Onions!!!!

You need some? They go great with steak when caramelized  . 

[SwampDonkey]

I'm going to do some hot pepper pickles later when my flaming flares turn red, mix with jalapenos. Love hot peppers on meat sandwiches.

[newoodguy78]

21 your observations on compost vs fertilizer is great to hear. I've noticed the same when using compost and backing away from chemical fertilizer, the plants and the fruit they produce are simply stronger and have a better shelf life. 
Been messing around heavily for the past 5 years trying to step away from conventional methods. I'm really starting to see drastic improvements in yields and quality of product. The commercial mindset when growing on large scale is quite similar to being stuck in a downward spiral. There's always a new product that will "fix" the current problem. What they don't tell you is the 6-8 other major issues that will arise because of it. Bringing it back to basics and focusing on legitimate soil health pays off, takes awhile yet in the end it's well worth it.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, yields are much better with compost or rotten composted manures. My squash and cukes grow twice as large as advertised and yield more. Tomatoes yield more as well. My beans are big crops to, you couldn't imagine how many beans can grow on 2 - 15 foot rows. Way more than we can use and I eat beans most every day in season, we freeze some and can never use half of them. I have nicer onions to, and the kind I grow last until we've eaten them all, which is usually by April. Just look at the regenerative farmers, their yield is higher per acre and the soil isn't sterile. I use very little fertilizer. A bag lasts me years.

[21incher]

21 your observations on compost vs fertilizer is great to hear. I've noticed the same when using compost and backing away from chemical fertilizer, the plants and the fruit they produce are simply stronger and have a better shelf life.
Been messing around heavily for the past 5 years trying to step away from conventional methods. I'm really starting to see drastic improvements in yields and quality of product. The commercial mindset when growing on large scale is quite similar to being stuck in a downward spiral. There's always a new product that will "fix" the current problem. What they don't tell you is the 6-8 other major issues that will arise because of it. Bringing it back to basics and focusing on legitimate soil health pays off, takes awhile yet in the end it's well worth it.

Most people have no idea what food should taste like. Definitely  higher quality  with compost. Have to make your own and be sure no horse manure is used in it. I just use vegetation in mine.
Up here the big farmers just use gmo's, roundup, and heavy fertilizer applications to get tremendous harvests of crap that goes in commercial food products. I can't believe people eat the stuff. That's why we grow our own.

[SwampDonkey]

First string beans will be served tonight, with fresh carrot and beets. Been enjoying fresh cucumbers, and plan on doing 6 pints of dill pickles this weekend.  Lots of tomatoes, none ripe yet. But they are trimmed up so sunlight and air can get through the vines.

[newoodguy78]

Swamp nice work getting the tomatoes up where the sun and breeze can get them. As you know that job pays off. Time it takes is a small fee for the best fungicide and pesticide available...good ol' sunshine and breeze. 

This weather has my corn going gang busters, can't stay ahead of it. Excellent eating good looking stuff too Had 330 dozen picked bagged and loaded before 5:30 this morning. Starting to get noticed by a few potential buyers which is nice. 

[SwampDonkey]

The darn tomatoes get to be more like trees. Lots of tomatoes on them. But I'd prefer plants no more than 3 feet tall, not 5 or 6. They get very little fertilizer in the spring, no more than I'd use 40 years ago. That composted manure must be rich stuff, as they have grown like this now for the last 6 years. But there is more soil supplementation added besides manure. That old garden used to be pretty run out, not now.    I see a few cantaloupe fist sized, I can only eat 3 or 4 when they get ready, man they are some sweet and juicy compared to imported hard tasteless things.  I have not seen any cucumber beetles at all this year and last year they were few and far between. I don't spray any chemicals.

My onions from sets are dying down now. I blame the seed, I think it was full of disease. I was not too impressed by them. I think I got most of their trash bulbs. I won't buy any more sets, just start my own from seed. Way heathier onions.

I don't think local corn is quite ready here, but not too far off. The corn I see mostly is feed or oil seed corn and it is all cobbed out. The neighbor's garden corn might be ready now, he had it planted real early, we was just lucky we had a rare spring we didn't get late frost. His corn is also sheltered.

[21incher]

My garden is a disaster.  Had 2 beds of beans ready  to pick last Sunday ( at least 2 -5 gallon buckets)  but I came down with that new covid that's going crazy in our area. Spent  the whole  week suffering  on the sofa with a high fever taking Paxlovid and sleeping. This was no fun but today I may be able to make it to the garden to see if any beans  are salvageable. My wife has covid just as bad now. Only good thing is I lost 8 pounds. I have 300 to 400 pounds of tomatoes turning red and have to try to get what the squirrels haven't chewed picked. Probably have zucchini sized cukes out there now. Being  sick means we didn't  eat  the veggie drawers full of beans, squash,  peppers, okra, and lettuce so that will all be heading to the compost. Harvest time is the worst time of the year to get sick. Good thing about  gardening is what you can't  use just goes in the compost to feed next year's crop. Thanks  for sending  us down more smoke this year.  

[thecfarm]

Sorry to hear that you have been sick.
You are right on the compost part.
Like I say, there is always next year. 

[SwampDonkey]

I could smell smoke here, but they are also burning debris piles from land clearing and Christmas tree stumps/brush to. If we get a SE wind, the whole community is full of smoke off them land clearing fires. You guys must be getting something out of Quebec in NY. Nothing for forest fires around here currently, never been dry. Currently no fires on the fire watch site and can burn anywhere, no bans.

Hope you get over the dose, you've had it a few times, no virus is much fun. The worst I had was some flu about 45 years ago. The smell of food made me puke and toothpaste tasted really weird. I was out of commission for about 3 weeks, ached all over and taking a bath was a chore.

[SwampDonkey]

A batch of dill pickles. There's a pile of cucumbers down in the garden and will be a bigger pile as the smaller ones size up this week. Unbelievable yield.

[SwampDonkey]

Dillweed, 5 feet tall.

[SwampDonkey]

These cantaloupe are around 5" wide now. 3 this size and 3 around 3" wide. Got some more growing to do. 

[newoodguy78]

What variety on the cantaloupes, Aphrodite?

[SwampDonkey]

Halona. Heavy yielding of 5 lb fruit in 75 days from transplants. Intermediate resistance to Fusarium and mildew.

https://www.veseys.com/ca/halona.html

[newoodguy78]

Have you ever tried sugar cubes? They do well for us. Much smaller fruit, a big one is softball size. They tend to be sweeter than others. Hardest part about selling them is getting people to try them initially. If you aren't familiar with them you'd think they were either picked too early or just didn't do well. 
Once someone tries them they're usually hooked. 
One of my favorite summertime treats is half a cantaloupe with all the vanilla ice cream it'll hold. 

[SwampDonkey]

No I have not, and I have not grown cantaloupe for more than a couple years. I tend to use varieties that have been in trials by Veseys or McKenzie for our climate. They do sell a smaller cantaloupe. I don't get big into it because I'm only going to eat 2 or 3 cantaloupe to start with and give brother a couple, and maybe a neighour, depending on my mood and of course, yield. I'm on the microscale.   

[SwampDonkey]

Is this thing a cucumber or zucchini?   It's 15" long. I picked another variety the other day, it was twice as fat and just as long.   And they ain't old passed due cukes either, still young and good eat'n. 

I'm sure there are prettier faces to look at to. I'm not as beautiful as I once was.