WEEKLY GARDENING THREAD OCT. 12, 2018

freerepublic | OCT. 12, 2018 | greeneyes

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Our oaks are continuing to rain acorns.
We have scooped bucketfuls of acorns around our house and deposited them in the woods above our house.

We’ve never seen this many in the nearly 20 years we’ve owned the property.

[Svartalfiar]

Financed it himself, initially at least, because ag colleges and the like said it couldn't be done or impractical.

Finch sells a "Citrus in the Snow" report detailing his work with his "geo-air" greenhouses and says anyone can build a market-producing greenhouse for about $25,000 or "less than the cost of a heat system on a traditional greenhouse".

They're right, it is impractical. I'm guessing he'll die before he manages to sell $25M worth of oranges from the greenhouse. Even at the winter farmer's market.

[Celerity]

I’m a month into my aquaponics experiment and two plants have popped up.

About 18 have died. I’m not too happy but the 2 sprouts at least let me know that I’m doing something right.

[Katya]

I had no idea tomatoes could be overwintered! Already dug up mine and threw them in the compost, but will try that next year.

[tubebender]

I have to spade a patch for my Garlic which is a couple of weeks late. We are still getting tomatoes off the greenhouse plants, have harvested 3 nice bell peppers but the Diva cucumbers are very late to produce this year. No photos due to a password problem with Flickr..

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We still have flowering pepper plants in our raised beds.

Frost is due here next Wednesday but being close to the big lake, we get an extra few weeks of grown time.
Lake water is reported to be 75.

Steamy this morning...

[Aliska]

Maybe blood oranges would find a better market? Walmart had some - briefly. I was disappointed they had sold out before I could get some to make orange curd with them, for the novelty of it.

I've never even seen a blood orange in real life.

I think of what I enjoy first and thn try to make it profitable. Look for a niche market. But it would be hard to compete as more come on board.

I haven't gone into it in great depth yet anyway. All the growing I've ever personally done has been mainly for pleasure, my own family and preserving. I never did much of it except my fruit trees, preferred to grow flowers otherwise.

The only crop I had any real surplus would have been green beans; those were the easiest and most prolific for me. Tomatoes might have been next. Cherry tomatoes. The big ones were more finicky and prone to failures. Can't say I ever had any success with them to speak of.

[ApplegateRanch]

3-8” of white tonight. Started mid afternoon, and currently have 3-4” in our driveway, and still falling.

Even the indoor potted amaryllis has started to toss it in for the season.

[left that other site]

YIKES!

It’s only October!

[Augie]

Cool and damp here in Central Missouri for the past few days. Overnight low of 34°F last night.

Mrs. Augie and I had a busy day yesterday getting ready for the coming cold temps. All of the tropicals have been either moved indoors or cut down, dug up, and stored in the barn. I really need to build a proper root cellar for such things.

I've got most of the winter supply of firewood laid in. Three trailer loads of mill waste tossed on the pile so far - one more load will do it for this time. Most years it takes six loads, but I had a decent start to the pile, and I've got a mountain of deadfall around the place that needs to be cleaned up. The drought conditions over the summer killed several big black oak trees, and there are dead piss elms everywhere that need to be taken down.

The cooler weather had everyone craving chili, so we made a batch on Saturday. Peppers, tomatoes, and garlic all came from the garden. It was yummo.

The rains we've received over the past couple weeks are beginning to fill the pond. I need to haul in a few more cedar trees before the water gets too deep.

[tob2]

Cooler temperatures here as well. Harvested all the basil and will make pesto. Picked two tomatoes and will have them for a snack. Marigold going strong. Caladiums dying back and they will go into the shed for the winter.

“I’ll chop off the tomato branches that still have green cherry tomatoes and blossoms and stick them in a pot of dirt.” If I were to do that, would they grow indoors in mostly bright, indirect light?

Hope all is well.

[tob2]

Awesome. I’d love to be able to have a greenhouse like that! But living in an apartment; there is only so much outside space. And I’m very grateful to have what I have.

[metmom]

We had snow this morning, just a dusting, but growing season is definitely over here in NY, and NH based on the picture my son sent me.

Anyways, we’re going to visit him this weekend and my daughter wants cider doughnuts so I looked up a recipe and found some at this site that has recipes for Amish cooking.

http://www.amish365.com/

http://www.amish365.com/homemade-cider-doughnuts/