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Post by steev on Sept 19, 2013 19:31:04 GMT -5
Affordable housing?
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Post by YoungAllotmenteer on Sept 20, 2013 14:07:10 GMT -5
Wonderful photos Joseph, I'm still likely a good month off Maxima & Moschata harvest (End of Oct planned provisionally). Mine will be a damn sight smaller, I realistically have very little weighing over 5lbs.
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Post by richardw on Sept 20, 2013 14:25:37 GMT -5
Bloody good load of squash there alright
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 20, 2013 19:11:32 GMT -5
YoungAllotmenteer: I have another patch of maxima squash to pick in which the target weight is about 5 pounds. I hope to pick them and post a photo next week.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 23, 2013 13:10:06 GMT -5
No fair, I want to post a photo! I've a great one this year.
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Post by raymondo on Sept 23, 2013 17:29:23 GMT -5
Great looking squash there Jospeh. If my maxima harvest is only half as good I'll be thrilled.
(Holly, use photobucket or picasa or something. Easy to post photos from there. Joseph kindly provided me with the necessary information on how to do it.)
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 28, 2013 18:39:16 GMT -5
I finally harvested runner beans!!! Thanks Holly. I have been trying to grow runner beans for years, but the growing season is too short. My grandfather used to grow them regularly, and we ate them as soup beans, but his seed stock was lost to the family and I haven't been able to find a suitable replacement since I returned to our village. I planted two populations or runner beans this year in different fields. The first was assorted runner beans from all over. They haven't matured yet and are not even close. The second population are Tarajumara Runner beans that Holly sent. They were light speckled gray when planted like the smallest bean near the top/right corner of the photo. The flowers were white or scarlet. Most of these also did not mature and were not even close, so we picked them and ate them as shellies a day or two ago before frost was expected. A few pods had almost mature beans in them. They are still very wet, but I think plenty mature to germinate next season (if I grow next season). Here is what the most mature looked like.
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Post by YoungAllotmenteer on Sept 29, 2013 2:32:00 GMT -5
Runner's looking good Joseph! I have found that the speckled greys require the longest season out of Holly's mix, the Blacks / Pink & Blacks have been producing mature seed for probably 2 months now for me, the greys have only really got started in the last couple of weeks but of course are my favourite!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 26, 2013 1:12:32 GMT -5
I have settled on my fields for next year. Space will be much less than the 3 acres that I farmed this year. My main field is at my daddy's house. When he was tilling up his garden he added some space for me to plant. I'm calling it the East Field. It gets watered properly because my daddy is there and watches over things constantly. This will get all of the small seeded things and the most precious seeds. I planted the Rocky Field this summer. It had horrible problems with animals: Something browsed the runner beans constantly. Something picked all the green tomatoes. Peppers and cucumbers were not bothered. Squash and watermelon fruits were bitten, but many survived. Corn was bothered a lot, so I picked the promiscuously pollinated sugary enhanced sweet corn early. It is less than a mile from where I grew a glorious patch of cucumbers every year when I was a boy. I expect that I'll plant cucumbers in the Rocky Field. I expect that I'll transplant watermelons into this field. The Long Field is new this year. The soil has a few large rocks in it, but not as many as I would have expected due to it being across the canal from Rocky Field. It's a bit of a show garden, so I need to keep it weeded very well. I may plant one row of squash right down the center of it so I can weed mostly with the tractor. And catching up on a few photos that I missed posting during the growing season. A few Bush Cantaloupe appeared this year in my cantaloupe landrace as they have in past years. They were almost too long season for my garden. I don't remember if I saved seed or if I lost the fruits... So many things to take care of during frost-emergency-harvest. Too easy to misplace things. The bush seeds I planted from last year didn't germinate for me in the rocky field. They grew fine for others who have returned seeds to me. I still have the original seed as well. White Cucumber. Came to me originally from Face Of The Earth Seed. It seems like this was a cultivar when I received it. I keep a few green cucumbers in the patch in order to expand its genetic diversity. This is the best tasting young cucumber that I have ever tasted, because there is not the slightest bit of bitterness in the skin. Tastes sweet even though Brix is low. It ages quickly so they are best picked young. Cucumber Landrace: Descended from Face Of The Earth, Hog Wild Seed Swap, Long Island Seed Project, and others. You can definitely see the influence of Marketmore since that it the go-to cucumber around here. This is the second/third generation of Lagenaria squash grown in my garden. They don't seem particularly well adapted Maybe that's cause they were planted just at the edge of my irrigation system and if the wind was blowing too hard they missed getting watered sometimes. But in other years they have likewise struggled while adequate water. At least this year every plant produced offspring. The first time I planted them many varieties didn't even flower. I really aught to try eating one of them as a summer squash. And finally, I really enjoyed the drive home from the fields this evening:
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Post by richardw on Oct 26, 2013 13:12:11 GMT -5
Good to have your father there to help with the watering,so what's growing to the left of the Long Field
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 26, 2013 13:41:55 GMT -5
To the left of the Long Field is the neighbor's garden and driveway. The garden is covered with a weed mat topped by pine bark. There is an occasional tree or shrub sticking through the weed mat. I suspect that they spray very heavily with -cides because about 18" of soil on my side of the fence seems dead and didn't support plant growth. I definitely won't be planting close to the fence.
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Post by richardw on Oct 26, 2013 13:48:53 GMT -5
Oh dear!! hope they dont spray when a breeze is blowing your way,you would think that they wouldn't need to spray if they have used a weed mat and bark,thats the whole idea of using it one would think.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 26, 2013 20:20:12 GMT -5
The attitude around here is that everything gets sprayed. And then sprayed a couple more times just in case.
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Post by richardw on Oct 27, 2013 13:10:30 GMT -5
Do you think that the neighbour will respect your garden and not spray upwind?
I had my neighbour do that to me a few years ago,he was using a tractor mounted unit,there's line of tall trees between us but the spray drift went up and over and dropping down into different areas of the garden,lost a whole seasons raspberries and killed 80% of my Goji bushes,i said to him after "that's the last time you ever do that to me again",and thanks to cell phones these days its easy to get the evidence needed ,our Regional Council will prosecute those that allow spray drift to effect others if proven.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 27, 2013 13:23:39 GMT -5
I hang signs like this on my fields. I intend them for the county mosquito abatement crew, and for advertising. I normally talk to the neighbors if I notice them spraying over the fence. This particular neighbor is the Mormon bishop so he has a little more incentive than most to play nice. The neighbor on the right side of the long field is going to be a grain farmer next year. He'll use copious amounts of tractor applied herbicides.
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