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Post by mskrieger on Nov 6, 2016 10:38:01 GMT -5
Another pest / timing thing I noticed this year is the stink bugs that showed up five or six years ago. They move in and in a couple days completely destroy any type of squash. This year a volunteer plant and a couple of late planted plants have had no problem and are still producing. Same with some late volunteer cucumbers. Looks like I can get back into growing squash by not planting till mid to late June. Don't know if they don't bother melons or if they just didn't find the melons. That could be a problem as I don't know if planting them later would work our for maturing, will have to see what happens next year. I'm in hopes the fuzzy spiky nature of especially the wonderful rock type melons will help with that. I have noticed that melons, in general, are my most pest- and disease-resistant cucurbits. Don't know why. And your observations about timing are interesting. Depends on your local ecology, but this year I planted "Poona Kheera", a spiny cucumber that turns yellow when ripe, a bit later than everyone else planted cukes. My neighbors didn't get any cucumbers to eat because the plants got hit with some bacterial wilt disease probably spread by an insect vector. But my late-planted Poonas grew and grew and grew and gave us massive quantities of fruit. They eventually succumbed to disease in late August, but two months later than everyone else's plants. (I also found that the over-mature cukes could be cooked like zucchini, and stayed nice and firm. May not bother planting zucchini anymore.) Sounds like your brassicas did fabulously. Do you have problems with cabbage butterfly caterpillars at all? Does timing come into it?
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Post by reed on Nov 6, 2016 14:52:49 GMT -5
Yes, I was very happy with my brassicas and yes I have the nasty little caterpillars. They are a big reason I want to create a brassica crop for fresh harvest of leaves, stems, flower buds and seed pods. I like all those things and you can harvest outside the season for the worms and when there isn't much else fresh to eat. The worms eat mostly leaves, haven't noticed them much on the pods so by time it gets hot and the leaves don't taste that good anyway they can have them.
Right now two cabbages that lived last winter and made lots of tasty pods this year are growing again and getting that pretty bluish color, small leaves are good again but here In November there are still a few worms. Some volunteers off those cabbages, (hopefully crossed) and a bunch of other brassicas are growing too. It will be fun to see what lives and what I get from it in spring.
When I isolate some good hardy strains and crosses I'll start selecting from even more tender and tasty stems and pods. All I'v tried so far are already pretty good so I think it should be pretty easy.
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Post by reed on Nov 6, 2016 21:57:50 GMT -5
Here are my two year old cabbage plants, starting to taste good again. Along the log are some volunteers that came up from them or one of the other brassicas that went to seed. In the patch are lots of little cabbage/brussels sprouts/ cauliflower/ broccoli/ kale. Also lots of weeds, beans, dill, radishes and weeds. Been waiting for frost to clean than out some, I suppose it will eventually. Easy to see, cabbage worms still active on Nov. 7. Here is my walking onions, an overcrowded mess. This is what I'm used to seeing. When I divided them up and took care of them they stopped making bulbils. I'll build my stock back up and try more intensive cultivation for bigger bulbs and maybe seeds again. Some more brassicas there too. The woman started them in her greenhouse, she thinks they are broccoli and maybe they are. The mother plant was in any case. And here is the crunchy sweet volunteer tomato I mentioned a while back. Still producing heavy but not quite as sweet as when it was warmer, still very good. Munch on em almost everyday. There was another volunteer vine with very similar orange/red fruit but they were not good at all, I culled it weeks ago.
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Post by reed on Nov 26, 2016 7:54:18 GMT -5
I found a picture of a flower I sent seed of to some friends. I called it wild Indiana summer phlox but don't know what species it actually is. Anyway for those who got some here is what it looks like. I love those bee moth critters and I'm sure they like other stuff but this flower is the only thing I'v ever seen them on. All manner of butterflies love it too. The seeds I sent have a range of color, this pink one is less common than purple, white is least common. I have this idea that I know works with some things and want to expand into as many as possible that the best time to pant a lot of things is when that thing makes seeds. Of course you have to save tomatoes, corn, beans and the like but I thinking anything with a hint of being biannual, perennial, easy annual or tolerant at all of cold might be better allowed to do what it wants. My best little brassica landrace plants currently growing are the ones that came up volunteer. Another case in point is radishes. I started mixing them into a landrace just a couple three seasons ago. I discovered I like the seed pods as a vegetable better than the roots and then I learned about using the diakon types as ground cover and tillage. My mistake especially in using them for tillage was waiting to late to plant. They didn't get big enough before freezing to do a lot as far as growing big roots to loosen the soil or grow enough big leaves to mulch good. Here are some however that planted themselves from this years pod / seed patch. The seeds just fell into the corn patch where I didn't pay much attention and started growing on their own. The red one weighed 1.75 lb and surprisingly they are crisp ant tasty. There are even still bigger ones still out there. So time to plant for tillage and even for roots to eat is when ever they drop drop seeds. They might lay there a while during the hot dry but will sprout when they feel like it. Dill, sunflowers, cilantro, marigolds and maybe a couple other things are already taking care of themselves. I just transplant into orderly patches in the spring. Looks like cabbage / brussel sprouts / broccoli / kale are on their way to doing the same thing. Radishes have the added benefits of tillage, mulch and fertilizer. Wish I knew this stuff a long time ago, o'well better late than never.
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Post by shoshannah on Nov 27, 2016 13:53:44 GMT -5
I like the picture of the hummingbird moth. Haven't seen any here but we had them in Montana. They liked the zucchini flowers.
I'm still finding some worms on my plants. We haven't had a frost yet so maybe the butterflies are still hanging around. Our wet
weather is conducive to lots of slugs but I think the worm has a bigger appetite and does more damage. I'm looking into plants that
encourage the predator insects to hang around.
I always like your posts and pictures of edible parts on your brassica projects. I've tasted some of the young leaves
of the Romanesco Cauli and it was not bitter having a strong cabbage flavor. Waiting for frost to see if it tastes different.
I'm really interested about how your long lived plants will do. With the interest diverted from from developing heads it should take breeding into a whole new direction. Did you cut your 2nd year cabbages down to one stalk and eat the other heads?
Did you let the broccolis that didn't head live on and go to seed? I've read of some accounts that some broc didn't head up
until the second season.
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Post by reed on Nov 27, 2016 21:24:26 GMT -5
Did you cut your 2nd year cabbages down to one stalk and eat the other heads? Did you let the broccolis that didn't head live on and go to seed? I've read of some accounts that some broc didn't head up until the second season. A couple of the branches on the cabbage made tight little heads, kind of like large brussels sprouts but milder in flavor, others are very loose. We ate t he tight ones in vegetable soup and some grilled, the grilled ones were wonderful. Some branch tips look like they have similar little heads but they are just loose clusters of leaves. I have eaten some of them raw but leaving others alone to see what they do next year. I left all the stalks as they have many little sprouts at old leaf joints. I never knew that broccoli sometimes took two years. Wish I had cause I culled the ones that grew very large and lived through last winter but failed to make any heads or bloom stalks this year. I wondered at the time if I should maybe be more patient but they were so big and taking up space I needed for other things. It finally got cold enough to get rid of the worms, the old plants and most of the new ones are perking up. A few new ones show some burning from the cold, guess they may cull themselves, that's fine.
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Post by reed on Jan 20, 2017 10:34:57 GMT -5
Yesterday I mixed up and sifted the soil mix for my indoor seed trays. Last year was the first time in a long time I started anything inside. I like my portable unheated cold frames that I set up on the south facing patio for most stuff but I'm new to TGS, TPS, and TSPS. Also not a lot of experience with onions from seed. I'm pretty sure onions garlic and likely TPS will be moved to cold frame or even direct seeding as I observe more how they act but for now I want to keep a close eye, besides I mostly just feel the need to plant something. My old heat mat was a little funky and didn't fit good, I just got two new ones that fit perfect in the south kitchen windows. I'll move onions and garlic outside on the patio as soon as they sprout and only cover or bring them in if very cold is expected. Gonna trial them in the cold frame too, at the same time I start the indoor ones.
I'll start with TGS, onions, and leeks and a little later the TPS. TSPS won't come till April. Also thinking of cold frame TSPS experiment since I have plenty of seed but that probably won't be till May.
Garden is a yucky mess right now with rain last several days. Looks like most of my winter hardy B. oleracea patch is kale or has strong influence of kale with most plants having bluish or reddish ruffled leaves. I like kale but not as much as the other things, will probably eat most of it's flower stems before they release pollen, leave just a few to continue mixing in. Some old brussels sprouts are hanging in there too. The second winter for my two old cabbage plants seems to be taking a harder toll on them than last winter. The clay in my garden is hard on things I think, during long periods of wet cold but not freezing cold.
Some carrots that I thought had croaked are sprouting and look surprisingly good. They were planted fall 2015 and mostly did not bloom last season. Got a lot of experimenting still to get timing right for carrot seeds in my garden.
Swiss chard looks dead just like last winter but I'm not so sure. Last spring when I tilled I dug into some thick red and white roots that were still alive, or had been till I chopped them up. I think it had only died above ground and I just wasn't patient enough, I'll test that this year.
Several lettuce plants appear to be still alive, they reseeded from ones that lived last winter, I love that, lettuce has potential to be a weed! I'll have fresh lettuce when other people haven't even planted. Gonna start some lettuce bouquets, just a few different color plants in a little pot, they sold very well at the swap meet last year.
Got one more big dead tree to cut and it is gonna fall in the garden, I got the fence down and out of the way, just need a half way dry day to get that little chore done.
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Post by reed on Feb 13, 2017 3:50:35 GMT -5
I had plans to start a lot of things inside this year but changed my mind. Unheated cold frames have worked well for me for years, I like using them and I want to select for plants that are happy that way. I'm doing just small amounts of some stuff inside as an insurance and to compare results. So, onions, leeks and garlic are in. Checked yesterday and some onions and leeks are sprouting. Have just one little tray of garlic inside too but nothing on it yet in either place. Put cabbage, broccoli and TPS in yesterday and a little TPS tray inside as well. I'll be direct seeding lettuce, carrots, radish and poppies sometime this week. I'm just gonna scatter the poppies here and there around the edges. I have little pvc hoop houses to drop over the other things if necessary. Also saved back seed of all the other things above for direct seeding trials in another couple weeks. I may even run some experiments with things like corn, beans and tomatoes. It was almost 70 F here last couple days, it could go below zero again or it could just get warmer. There is frost risk to planting early but almost guarantee of hot dry if you wait. I'm thinking of letting the soil be my guide, if it's workable it's time to plant. Just don't know that I ever saw it workable in the middle of February before.
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Post by mskrieger on Feb 13, 2017 11:33:50 GMT -5
It was almost 70 F here last couple days, it could go below zero again or it could just get warmer. There is frost risk to planting early but almost guarantee of hot dry if you wait. I'm thinking of letting the soil be my guide, if it's workable it's time to plant. Just don't know that I ever saw it workable in the middle of February before. That's just wild, to have soil in the Midwest workable in February. I really admire your cold frame setups, by the way. (Admire = Jealous) Someday.
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Post by reed on Feb 23, 2017 4:54:46 GMT -5
All of my onions and leeks are up and starting to grow. Not much difference between the inside ones and the cold frame ones. The leeks include some that grew from a couple I found in the fridge last spring and stuck in the ground and some from a trade here on HG. Onions include Lofthouse landrace, (Merlin) TPOS, Evergreen bunching and Walla Walla. Those last two I got at the store and don't know much about them.
Onion bulbs I replanted last fall from some I saved and most of the ones from the store are growing well. Shallots are not growing but I examined one and it was nice and firm and rooted down so I expect they will. The ones from the store called pearl onions are the only ones that rotted. I expected some very large sweet ones would be most likely to rot but they are growing. (Merlin) TPOS direct seeded last fall are really starting to take off strong.
Inside TPS are sprouting nicely but just a few in the cold frame are. Other more common stuff like cabbage is growing. It's been plenty warm, I mostly only put the lids on the frames at night.
Garlic is not sprouting at all except for a couple in the cold frame. I'm setting up another frame today and moving everything outside with the exception of the TPS. Gonna use the windowsill space to start Dahlias and tomatoes.
I think I should fairly easily be able to pull off two generations of tomatoes if I start some now without having to try growing them all the way to maturity inside. If I get seeds early June or even later I'll have plenty of time for the next generation.
I got delayed on some other direct planting due to other tasks and rain, weather is supposed to be upper 70s today and 80 tomorrow. Supposed to cool off some after that but the coldest predicted is low 30s. Hope to get a lot more stuff like lettuce, carrots, bok choi and the like planted today.
If it comes hard freezes later I have old blankets to toss on the cold frames and I'll just start over on the other stuff.
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Post by reed on Feb 23, 2017 9:04:59 GMT -5
I forgot about garlic in the previous post. Last year I traded for some new to add to my own "Reed's Hoosier Homestead" that I found in the woods years ago and planted them all from bulbils in the fall like you are supposed too. RHH is the strongest by a considerable margin with the bulbil planted ones almost as big as the ones left to fend for themselves like I always did before. They have really took off growing and I'm I wondering now if they might overtake the neglected ones. That will be interesting to see. German Brown is not far behind RHH, maybe 3/4 the size and nice and healthy looking. Spanish Roja looks OK at about 1/2 the size of HRR and Red Russian is rather puny at about 1/4 size of RHH as well as only around 50% of it lived. toomanyirons , that was good advice you gave me on focusing on my own that I have had a long time but I'm very happy to have the new ones too. The German Brown especially looks like it may be happy here. The single larger seed grown Chesnok Red is growing nicely never having been lifted from its original spot. The two that died back after transplanting last year that resprouted later, look fine too although considerably smaller. I found a bag of hundreds of RHH and a dozen or so each of the others that I had forgotten about, they are still fine, no rotting or drying up at all. I guess I'll plant a lot of them too and see how they end up comparing to the others. My tags faded on the little mixed patch that I'm going to remove bulbils from to try to get seeds. O'well if I actually do get seeds I don't care that much anyway who the mother plant was.
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Post by reed on Mar 6, 2017 7:36:30 GMT -5
Radishes and lettuce are sprouting. I transplanted my TGS Chesnok Red Garlic and the biggest 1/2 dozen from bulbils into a new bed along with the biggest of my own RHH that was growing wild here and there in the garden. I used to would have just tilled it under when time to plant but the big wild patch that grew for years along the south fence is mostly gone now cause of removing that fence and expanding the garden. I also moved some of it to the new south fence. I don't have the space to devote too much of it too garlic so it occurred to me to just scatter bulbils all around the property and in the edge of the woods to let it just go wild. It lived decades like that before I found it so why not? I don't care that much about having the biggest bulbs, if it just grows wild in abundance I'll be fine with that.
Set all my cold frame onion seedlings outside where I'm just going to leave them till time to plant in the ground. That will be whenever they get big enough to handle individually. Had been leaving the lid off the frame most the time anyway but sun and wind yesterday did dry the tips on a few leaves. Quite a few of them seemed to be having trouble rooting down good, maybe I should have planted a little deeper? I soon got tired of trying to fix each one individually so I filtered some fine compost and sprinkled it all over. It seemed to settle them all in pretty good. Only two sprouts on TGS, I took them back inside the house to keep a closer eye.
Planted about 60' of potatoes. Mix of Goldrush, White Superior, some from the grocery store, including some fingerlings and some that may be Yukon Gold. Also 5 marble sized TPS tubers from last year. I'll probably plant another tater patch as soon as the seed tubers become available.
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Post by reed on Mar 8, 2017 11:18:00 GMT -5
I have in the neighborhood of 500 onions from Tom's and Joseph's seeds around 100 happy little TPS plants and a couple TGS plant all growing happily. Some are inside, some in cold frame and many are already just sitting outside. I'll be planting 200 TSPS pretty soon with hopes of getting twenty or more good sprouts. From what I understand, pretty much every single one of these if properly grown and screened could be a great new variety or just an also ran deserving of being culled. My problem is due to space restrictions I'll have to cull many long before their full potential could be known. If a seedling gets damp off disease or shivers too much just cause it gets a little frosted, good riddance too them but does anybody know other good indicators to go by for culling at seedling stage?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 8, 2017 21:02:31 GMT -5
does anybody know other good indicators to go by for culling at seedling stage? Slow growth during the seedling stage often leads to slow growth all season long. It's common for me to cull seedlings about the time the first true leaves are emerging.
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Post by reed on Mar 11, 2017 7:53:13 GMT -5
Well I think all the Lofthouse onions, the Merlin TPOS and all the leeks are pretty cold tolerant. We were predicted to get to 19 F last night but my thermometer just said 22 at dawn. I had put the above that were started in the house up against the south wall on the patio last night and covered them with an old blanket as insurance but the ones just sitting out in the garden look fine.
Same with the two garlic that had sprouted. Don't know what effect it may have had on the rest that haven't sprouted yet. Maybe it is what they needed, I'll just be patient with them.
Chickened out on leaving the potatoes unprotected and brought the inside sprouted ones back in. Set the others back in the cold frame and haven't opened it yet. I had moved it the other day and didn't reseal around the bottom good so some cold air likely got in. I can afford to lose some and will be interesting to see if some got nipped and some didn't.
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