Weekly Garden Thread - August 8-14, 2020

August 8, 2020 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[Diana in Wisconsin]

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.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a week Ping List. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Is the chair for whoever is on Guard Duty that over-night? ;)

[who knows what evil?]

ALL are heirloom or open pollinated...I save seeds, so if you have a problem finding some of these, let me know late fall.

[metmom]

We have a good sized *garden shed* on our property and mr mm is going to put in it a canning kitchen.

We have the old countertop and sink from our house in NY when we remodeled the kitchen. We can manage something for the stove.

This year I’ll be doing my canning either in NY or at my son’s cause we have a glass cooktop which I HATE. We’re putting propane in soon, I hope, but until then, the glass cooktop is not being used for canning.

[Ellendra]

I’ll have to remember that. One of my tomato plants has hornworm damage, but I couldn’t find the worm itself.

[daniel1212]

Good work on Hornworm Patrol! That’s dedication! :)

No Hornworms here, but "blasting and mildew" in Biblical terms in this cursed earth.

Whereby the plot of various kinds of tomatoes, mostly Early Girls, Supersweet 100s, and Bib boys, when from, this 3 weeks ago:

To this today:

Which I surmise is due to crowded planting in soil infected with Early Blight disease. 19 of the 80 plants were from Home Depot, the rest started from, seed, but all are infected. Water splashing from infected soil and thereby spores onto the lower leaves of plants, where the disease spreads from, then spores to other plants. A few plants had it last year, but this year its all over. Next year - the 7th year planting - I pl;ant to give the land a sabbath rest, and I may cover the whole area with black plastic and bake the soil.

However, the fruit has so far been very good and quite plentysome, glory and thanks be to God. :

[Ellendra]

Earlier this week my dad and I dug a row of potatoes. Mostly Red Pontiac, but there were a few at one end labelled “Grocery”, which means they were eating potatoes that had gotten soft and wrinkly, so I planted them rather than throwing them out. They were fantastic! Big, solid, meaty potatoes under every plant!

That row took a little over 3 pounds of seed potatoes to plant. The harvest was more than 50 pounds!

And I still have 4 more rows to dig.

I also harvested my first ever patch of wheat. I’m counting it as “lessons learned”. Too many things went wrong. Including the fact that I was late harvesting. I’m not sure if any of the seeds I harvested are even viable. Hopefully next year will be better.

My squash plants are all doing well. I have lots of green squashes slowly getting fatter and fatter. I love watching them grow.

[metmom]

They are VERY hard to see. they are exactly tomato plant color and on the underside of the leaves. I found most of them in the evening because they are supposed to come out at night to feed.

MOST the ones I found were HUGE, which means they were ready to pupate and breed again. I found a few smaller ones, but not many. I expect another infestation but hopefully, the tomatoes will be done by then.

If you google up the hornworms, there’s a plethora of information about them. Basically, you kill them to stop them.

I can’t bear to touch them, even with gloves, so I have clippers and snip off the leaf it’s on and toss it in a bucket of soapy water.

[metmom]

I have found it almost impossible to prevent blight.

Here’s a recipe for blight control.

1 G water
3 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 drops Dawn dish washing detergent

Spray morning or evening, not in the middle of the day to avoid burning plant.
If blight continues, use 3 1/5 Tbsp baking soda.

[Ellendra]

Personally, I prefer spreading compost and/or manure in the fall and letting it sit all winter.

For stronger or more liquidy fertilizers, I’d rather spread them in the spring.

(I’m in south-central Wisconsin.)

[virgil]

Thank you. We were originally thinking of adding it in the fall. Probably will stick to that.

[Ellendra]

Yeah, usually in the past I’ve been able to spot them pretty easily. This time I just kept searching and searching and found nothing. To complicate the problem, this was in my farm garden, which is an hour away from where I live, so getting out there at night is probably not going to happen.

I hate touching them too. I usually just use the clippers to snip the worm itself in half, and leave the body there as a warning to the others. It worked when they showed up in my backyard garden. We only had hornworms out there one year, they never came back.

[Qiviut]

We have the 10th wettest August going on ... after the expected rains in the next couple of days, we’re supposed to move to the 3rd wettest August. We got an inch of rain just the night before last! I hustled out to the garden to pick tomatoes showing any blush - did not want them cracking from the rain!

The army worms will bore into green tomatoes; however, it seems they like them best when starting to turn. So far, I’ve only had a couple tomatoes ruined when just starting to turn, so the early picking is saving tomatoes from the worms.

[Qiviut]

Boy, am I jealous of your “canning kitchen” plans! Many decades ago, my folks looked at a house (with some property so it was a farm sort of setup) that had a separate canning kitchen & I remember thinking back then how “interesting” that was (I was a kid - no idea how canning ‘worked’). To have dedicated space would be wonderful. We have a lot of counter space, but I tend to fill it up while canning, even if I try not to.

I’m sure you’ll love propane, especially for canning. I cannot tell you how much I hate that glass top stove, but since you have one, you can probably make a good guess as to how I feel about it.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks!

[Redleg Duke]

My Hibiscus.

[metmom]

I’ve been canning for about 50 years and some.

When I was a teen, I’d help my mother and just kept at it.

There’s NOTHING like homecanned.

I don’t even need the Ball Blue book now except to check the times on a few items.

[metmom]

Snipped in half.....

EEEWWWWWW!!!!!!!

What a brave soul.

I’ll just keep chucking them into the soapy water.

[Qiviut]

Both of my grandmothers were on farms - they had to can to keep produce for future times (winter in particular). Both canned in different ways. My mother has never canned. All the canning I know, I’ve picked up from the Ball Blue Book & videos.

My maternal granny canned using her roaster on top of the stove. No pressure canner. Why no one died, I’ll never know because it was not uncommon for things she’d canned (corn, beans, etc.) to explode down in the root cellar! She canned everything hot water bath & the jars weren’t even totally covered by the hot water. This was back in the day when she would go grocery shopping for a family of 7 (5 kids) and spend $5.00 for a week. She always had a wonderful garden - her stewed tomatoes served on top of boiled potatoes from her garden was one of my favorite things to eat at her house.

My paternal granny canned as well. I was a lot younger when she was alive so I am unaware of how she canned veggies, but I know from my dad that she canned sausage (one of his favorites, served with hominy & gravy). They had metal cans, would afix the tops (had some kind of machine to seal them) & then they were boiled outside all day in a huge black iron kettle. My dad grew up during some of the Great Depression years - the way the family made it (& helped others less fortunate) was because they were on a farm & could grow their own food.

I always feel closer to my grannies when I can. They were hard-working, exceptionally frugal & resourceful, women - one raised 6 kids, the other raised 5 and the times/circumstances were difficult. I’ve always admired people who could can and you’re so very right when you say “there’s NOTHING liked home canned”!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Diane:

Omega 3 Fats from plants. Info found in:

https://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/The-bullies-of-the-fat-world-The-food-industry-s-2664029.php

Snip..."Purslane, a relatively obscure leafy green vegetable, provides 400 mg of omega-3s if you eat about 3 ounces. Add it to salads or saute briefly. Chard and kale also have some ALA."...

Because I am naturally suspicious of information on the internet I did some further research and found this:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1354675/ Abstract

snip..."omega-3 fatty acids, alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene and glutathione determined in leaves of purslane (Portulaca oleracea), grown in both a controlled growth chamber and in the wild, were compared in composition to spinach. Leaves from both samples of purslane contained higher amounts of alpha-linolenic acid (18:3w3) than did leaves of spinach. Chamber-grown purslane contained the highest amount of 18:3w3. Samples from the two kinds of purslane contained higher leaves of alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid and glutathione than did spinach. Chamber-grown purslane was richer in all three and the amount of alpha-tocopherol was seven times higher than that found in spinach, whereas spinach was slightly higher in beta-carotene. One hundred grams of fresh purslane leaves (one serving) contain about 300-400 mg of 18:3w3; 12.2 mg of alpha-tocopherol; 26.6 mg of ascorbic acid; 1.9 mg of beta-carotene; and 14.8 mg of glutathione. We confirm that purslane is a nutritious food rich in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants."

and here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31398846/

snip..."Regarding the fatty acid content, stems contained mainly palmitic (20.2-21.8%) and linoleic acid (23.02-27.11%), while leaves were abundant in α-linolenic acid (35.4-54.92%). Oleracein A and C were the major oleracein derivatives in leaves, regardless of the harvesting stage (values were in the ranges of 8.2-103.0 mg and 21.2-143 mg/100 g dried weight (dw) for oleraceins A and C, respectively). Cytotoxicity assays showed no hepatotoxicity, with GI50 values being higher than 400 μg/mL for all the harvesting stages and plant parts. In conclusion, early harvesting and the separation of plant parts could increase the nutritional value of the final product through increasing the content of valuable compounds, such as omega-3 fatty acids, phenolic compounds and oleracein derivatives, while at the same time, the contents of anti-nutritional compounds such as oxalic acid are reduced."

Good deal! Omega 3s from a "Weed" in my garden! (Harvest young, do not allow to become old!)

Note that if anyone wants a milder tasting form of Purslane, you can purchase cultivated purslane seeds. (These were from Johnnys seeds!) 50 days to maturity, again, harvest early to reduce the Oxilic acid and increase nutrients!)

Goldberg Golden Purslane Specialty Greens

"Succulent golden-green leaves with orange stems. The 1 1/2" leaves are much larger than those of the wild form of purslane. Upright growth habit. Flavor is crisp and mild. Pick as needed to within 2" of the base; new stems and leaves regrow. Known as "verdolaga" in Latin America. Sensitive to frost. Avg. 67,900 seeds/oz. Packet: 500 seeds." (I Dont work for Johnny's...you can find other sources! Anyone who has problems with Kidney stones should avoid purslane (Oxalic acid)

[Califreak]

Purslane, when crushed, feels like aloe vera on booboos.

I have mouth sores and sometimes chew a couple of leaves and let them sit. Takes the burn away just like aloe vera does.