LOL! Marcella, you crack me up! Good luck with finding that squash!
Posted on 06/07/2013 1:13:59 PM PDT by greeneyes
Funny. Our jalapenos aren’t doing well, either. What’s good about cantaloupe sending runners among the tomatoes? Don’t you step on everything when that happens?
/johnny
LOL! Marcella, you crack me up! Good luck with finding that squash!
We planted Apache a couple years ago. The first year they grow ‘canes’, or long frondy branch thingies. They don’t do anything the first year. The second they grow another set of frondy things but the frondy things from the first year are still there. It’s the ones there a second year that bloom and make blackberries.
After they make berries the second year they usually die and you can prune them off.
Hope this makes sense?
Sorry, I missed this in the last comment. Try Kiowa or Ouachita blackberry's. The Mrs and I went to Medina, Tx yesterday, and their berry patches are full of fruit. The Kiowa will probably produce until the end of June.
I don't know if you're in the general area, but:
Love Creek Orchards
I had to look up garlic scapes and fabric growing bags. Thanks for broadening my horizons!
What do you want to do?
I have jalapeno plants that are 4 years old, growing in a greenhouse. If your constantly water them, the peppers should grow to a decent size, but they won't be as hot as the one's that are watered less. The peppers that I've grown in pots produce less and only last 1 season. Those grown outside produce well, but they will be killed by frosts/freezes unless you build a cold frame around them for protection in the winter.
“After they make berries the second year they usually die and you can prune them off. Hope this makes sense?”
No, it doesn’t make sense to me because I don’t know about this. Are you saying you cut off all the canes from first and second year after the second year and the plants grow more canes and berries the next year? Or, are you saying the plants are totally dead after the second year?
Do you net the berries to keep deer out or birds and squirrels?
Ok. The first year they grow canes. In fall the leaves on those fall off and they go dormant for winter.
Second year, THOSE canes sprout new leaves. PLUS a new set of canes grows.
Once those new canes have sprouted (at least with mine), the second year canes that came back out from being dormant in winter will bloom and make blackberries.
Later that fall, the second year canes will drop their leaves and die altogether. The first year canes will drop their leaves too. THEY will be NEXT years ‘second’ year canes that will make blackberries.
The third year, a new set of ‘first’ year canes will grow, the ‘second’ year canes from last year (they were first year canes last year) will leaf out again and bloom and make berries.
So, don’t prune anything until they’ve made blackberries. Then, only prune the canes that actually made blackberries. Leave everything else alone.
At the end of the summer and fall, it will be easy (for us anyways) to see which canes were the ones that made blackberries. They’ll be dried up and kind of looking like they’re going to die. Because they ARE going to die.
The whole plant will still be live. Just those canes that made blackberries already will die.
Birds mostly. Squirrels don’t seem to bother them too much so far. We also have put up some Wren boxes. They are territorial, and will try to drive off other birds, but they like to eat insects not so much on berries.
I looked on the map at Love Creek Orchards and it's close to my friend who lives in Bandera. She is reading these gardening threads now, so friend in Bandera, if you want blackberries go to Medina to this orchard.
I live many hours away from there but will look up these blackberries. Thanks for this post.
“fabric growing bags”
I found this method of growing in fabric bags on Amazon. I got several different sizes and will need more. They aren’t expensive like ceramic and one can use the bags over and over. They can’t get overwatered as the extra water flows out of the bag. When you get to the size of 5 gallon, it has straps on it to just pick it up and move it with the straps. There are two different brands on Amazon, read customer comments to decide which you want. One brand may have straps on lower capacity bags than the 5 gal..
My arugula lettuce has been very hardy and growing in the live oak tree ring out back. Spinach on the other hand didnt do so great. Got some green beans both in the garden and growing in pots which seem to be doing better. Some of the blooms fell off so I wonder if there will be a scant harvest of beans. A nice little drink of water from the sky here in DFW the other day. My 2 ‘mater plants in the garden bearing some nice tomatoes now and the Juliet plant is popping them out quite nicely. Think I’ll do another round of a compost tea/seaweed liquid cocktail they seem to enjoy with a little bit of epsom salt for additional kick.
Thanks for that detailed explanation - now, I’ve got it. I’ll copy that and stick it in my folder but now I know what will happen and what to cut.
The fact that they make it difficult to overwater makes them a very attractive concept.
What many people don't realize, is that the fertilizer you put on the lawn ends up in the leaves of the grass. Why throw away perfectly good fertilizer when you can make compost out of it and use it later?
Hi greeneyes and everyone!
It has been an eventful last several days. We have new lawn mower! A few days ago Darlin’ got radical with the weed eater and managed to behead one of my sunflowers and an okra!
We both managed to live through trauma of the decapitation. Today Darlin’ made it up to me by buying me an okra plant that is about as far along as the one we lost, and I plan to just sow some more sunflower seeds.
Also, I told Darlin’ today that I had not chosen to plant any cucumber seeds and I received a stricken look. When we were at the Box Store, Darlin also got a couple of cucumber plants and a packet of cucumber seeds for us!
Everything else seems to be coming along. The amaranth is getting bigger and it is fun to see how it is developing. the dill plants are starting to show the first little fuzzy dill head which is cute.
Welcome to the party. My corn is all growing at the bottom corner.
The weeds are so bad that it’s beyond useless. Getting some squash and volunteer beans.
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