Posted on 08/01/2014 12:20:34 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
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To all my fellow FRgarden lovers, I wish you love and happiness in your gardens, they really are more fun than non-gardeners could ever know!
I am sorry for your garden misfortune especially maters. Got to have some home grown ones, or else it’s just not right ya know?
I got some bacon today. We’ll have a few BLTs before the cold weather gets here. Only time I buy bacon is after we get several good maters nice and ripe.
Yes indeed, the harvest and eating is the favorite part!
I did give some thought to doing the pollinating myself a couple of days ago as I gazed sadly at my cucuzza and the idea suddenly popped up like a bloated something-or-other from the swampy depths of my aging memory banks. I’m going to take a look at what is going on with the blooms (if any are left) when the rain stops and see what I can do. Thanks!
West/South Central Wisconsin...the garlic has been harvested. Tomatoes are just pickable. Fruit trees doing great! As Joe Bastardi predicted...it is a “Garden of Eden” this year. 49 chickens have been dispatched and are canned or frozen. We had a horrible winter and a cool, beautiful summer summer so far.
I planted an “extra hardy” of nearly $20/pound seed German harneck last Fall, as that is what’s recommended for it. Most of it had not survived, nor thrived the previous year, so I used what little I had from that harvest to replant. It did do better than the previous year, but still nothing to write home about.
I planted 2 or 3 varieties of soft neck garlics this Spring, all either bought at the store, or at the organic market. They are not hardy enough to over-winter in our Zone-4/5 climate, so get planted as early as possible in the spring.
In any case, garlic is a heavy feeder, and needs P for root development, more than it does N for tops or K for flowers—not wanted. Also, it needs to be kept fairly well watered, same as onions, to maintain growth.
As for tips, I’m too new at garlic to have any, but Tubebender is a garlic grower par excellance!
As for fall planting, we only get a single short growing season, so can’t really do succession planting; however, depending how long you have until freeze—not frost—you can try any of several quick maturing cabbage family crops, especially if you can start with transplants. Also carrots can work, and stay in until the ground freezes; nothing wrong with harvesting them before full maturity if you need to. Also short season peas, usually bush types, to ensure maturity before they’re winter killed. Depending on your climate, you might also get fall spinach. Basically anything that is low number of growing days that would be planted in cool early spring weather can be used for a fall crop, if your August isn’t a real baker.
I have root knot nematodes that are killing my tomatoes. Next year, I'll probably do tomatoes in pots. I'll be covering the affected area with plastic this year, and solarizing the area to above 140F to try to kill them off without having to use chemicals.
Peanuts are doing great.
/johnny
It was hit and miss on which years it produced.
Dad cut it down about 30 years ago.
/johnny
/johnny
I really don’t have an answer. I don’t think I have nematodes.
I'm researching good nematodes that kill the bad nematodes.
/johnny
My garden is on the far northern Calif coast at the bottom end of the Pacific North West and our winters are very wet but little frost. Summer highs are upper 60 and lows of 55 and a little colder in the winter. I am buying all new Garlic seed stock due to a bad case of the garlic rust blight that stunted bulb size this year...
Hi greeneyes… we are having phenomenal weather here in Benderville and the garden is on auto pilot for the most part. I picked the first 8 ears of Revelation sweet corn this morning for my daughter and her husband to take camping. It was 2 or 3 days early but we will have lots and lots of it. I asked Lady Bender if she was ready to make corn meal and she said she would make a chowder and freeze it if it came to that. We will pick another gallon or more of strawberries tomorrow. and wish I had kept score this year. The yukon gold potatoes are not very productive but the spuds are huge and make great bakers and boilers. More news at 11...
I will be grateful for the meals I've had out of the garden, because I needed them at the time... but still, it would be nice not to fight for a few mouthfuls of food.
/johnny
Studying different fields, I tend to think that root knot nematodes do not like heavy soil, but flourish in sandy soils. So, without intending to, you have already begun the battle by adding so much organic matter onto your sandy garden. It is unfortunate that baking the soil will also kill some of the good flora and fauna. Perhaps you can convince the grandchildren to rake away the organic stuff, then bake the sand. (Finding good nematodes seems a lot easier.)
Wish I could be more helpful. I have been blessed with super heavy soil with serious clay hard-pan...So not much practice whipping root knots these days.
I still have my fingers crossed that we will get fresh tomatoes off the 4 Celebrity plants that are loaded with green fruit. I may take a butcher knife and sever some of the roots on two of them as I have read that hastens ripening?
My sub-arctic tomatoes are heavy with little green tomatoes. I think I finally found a variety that likes it up here. The peppers, even with the odd nasty 90°F weather are still small. The cabbage bolted. The chickens cheered. The strawberries are starting their second round. I have already started canning green beans and peas. The pumpkins, spaghetti squash and various varieties of dry beans are doing well. Carrots are OK. Onions still small.
I forgot to put the fishing-line barrier up. A deer got the tops of 1/3 of the cranberry beans and a few lentils. After the line went up, it got in again because we forgot a barrier into the garden. laughing... Bad- it ate the blooms off all of the potatoes. They had been there for a while, but do not know what that will do to the crop. It also ate half of a tobacco plant. Never had that happen. It has not come back since. Either the tobacco killed it or made it sick enough to avoid the area.
The second batch of four chickens we got, turned out to all be cockerels. They have been harassing the pullets to the point they will not leave the coop. Three are now in the chicken tractor until we get the new fencing up and set aside a small yard for them to fatten up for Freezer Camp. One who my husband named Elvis, (has a curl-like bit on the front of his comb and struts like the human he is named after), has shown good qualities for him to stay and make more tasty chicken bits. I hope the pullets relax when they realize that they will not have to fight off three randy cockerels any more. Elvis backs off when they give their version of “No!”
I sent a shot of our Subaru Outback fully loaded to my daughter today when we were about to head home after shopping. It was filled with: fencing, t-posts, canning jars, bale of pine shavings, chicken feed, groceries (that we cannot grow/raise ourselves) and sundries. She laughed and said we are truly hillbilly now. laughing....
Hi greeneyes and everyone!
SQUASH:
Well, I’m among the “squashed” now! Barely...but there! LOL!
The other day, I was watering and moving some of the leaves aside on my white bush squash, and couldnt believe my eyes: there in front of me was a fully formed, ready to harvest, PERFECT little scallop squash! No others. No other buds. Still lots of blooms, but the the magic happened now at least once. Not holding my breath, but there’s hope, right?
The same thing happened a few days before with my zucchini plant. I have one tiny zuck forming - not yet ready for harvest, and no others. And so far, no TSquash are happening. Lots of blooms all around, however, which is an improvement over what was happening last year. So at least I can say there is progress.
Cucumber plant has one which is maturing. Several small baby starts dried up. So my gourd family plants seem to be consistent this year in producing sparingly. So far.
My friend to whom I gave the T-Squash seedlings has given me another T-Squash. And she’s giving them away hand over fist. Darlin and I are still working on the first one she gave us! LOL! Maybe it’s a blessing that the squashes in my garden are shy this year.
OKRA:
Okras are doing well. I have only one plant of the Eagle Pass variety, and let the first pod go to seed. I just harvested the seeds yesterday. I am so in awe of the abundance of almighty God. That one pod produced 72 (I counted!) seeds! The flavor of this little okra variety is very good. The Orange jing has been producing and I love the flavor of it too. I have two Clemson Spineless, and they are producing as well.
TOMATOES:
Last count was 37 on the vines. I was able to harvest a couple of the Cherokee Purple. Today, I could see a couple of small Atkins ripening. All 5 of my mater pots have green tomatoes. (!!!)
LEGUMES:
Asian Trellis beans are awesome! I’ve been letting them go to seed. I know that mostly they are eaten green, but I have elected to raise these for my seed supply.
I still have some green beans forming. I also noticed today that my pinto bean plant has some seed pods ready for dried bean harvest. Cranberry beans are finished and withered, so they are compost now. But they did well for me.
POTATOES:
Sweet potatoes are happy ...if I could beat back the grasshoppers who are dining on them. But the ‘hoppers aren’t getting much and the vines keep spreading and taking over the area near the old AC unit. They have long since escaped the pot and are wilding! Don’t know if we’ll get any tubers from the ones in unprepared ground, but this too, is an experiment!
The white potatoes are hanging in there and I just keep watering them. Some of their foliage has dried up and I’ve had to prune it back a bit, but as I said, they are hanging in.
PEPPERS:
My one little (supposedly - don’t actually know since I haven’t tried it) medium hot pepper plant has bloomed and now producing more babies. I am electing in this case to also let everything go for seeds. The two pods that came with the plant last spring are bright red and it will be interesting to see what I actually do end up with!
SUNFLOWERS:
:-D
that’s just how they make me feel: Unreasonably happy. They are at the bowing stage and we have lots of little bees around them.
AMARANTH:
What a lovely plant! I planted the red variety this year. It has these seed stalks which sort of weep from the surrounding leaves. Wow! Total fun experiment.
ECHINACEA:
Hmmmmm. Well, I havent been successful in my bid this year to increase my patch. I don’t know what it is that has taken hold where I thought they were new cone flowers, but whatever it is doesnt seem at all to be developing into them. I’m leaving the mystery plants there because they actually are a pretty green ground cover. Gotta see what I can do next year! LOL!
DAIKON RADISHES:
I don’t think I reported on them fully. I was going to let them go to seed, but something, and I never figured out what, was consuming them. I went ahead and pulled them up. The roots were kinda small and skinny. Compost. I don’t think I provided a very good home for them. But I still consider it to be successful because at least I know more about them and the process they go through to live and grow.
I’m not seeking to do a fall garden this year. I’m just going to see what the ‘maters and other stuff already there end up doing and we’ll call it good!
Hope all is well with all of you!
Blessings
texokie
Daikon radishes
are those the humongous ones the Koreans use in Kimchi?
I'll probably stick with solarization.
I'll add good nematodes. And I'll grow tomatoes in pots next year, and maybe the year after.
I'm not sure I'll be here in 3 years, so I'm not going for the slow methods.
I have innoculant for the soil to re-introduce good microbes. I'll have that checked for nematodes. I may have grown some last year with the manure tea.
I'll fix it, but it does make me wish I had a WWII flame thrower.
I'm not subtle.
/johnny
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