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Post by Alan on Jun 25, 2008 18:10:33 GMT -5
I also forgot to mention that tomatoes and peppers are setting now and I already have green sausage and green grape tomatoes ripening, once again thank you to the great breeder Tom Wagner, much appreciated friend!
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Post by Alan on Jul 5, 2008 21:04:14 GMT -5
Well as of today all the initial cultivation for the season is done! All that's left now is to watch it grow and get the fall crops in the ground and the greenhouse crops started, put up a cold frame, and purchase my manure spreader (new floor, new metal, $100) and clean out the neighbors barn once again.
It looks like I'm going to have a lot more than I actually thought I was going to have, there for a while I was really, seriously worried!
I'll have sweet corn and squash this week, weve been cutting cabbage and collards, broccoli, and cauliflower for several weeks now, and we picked the first peppers last week!
Watermelons and cantaloupe are doing great!
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Post by canadamike on Jul 5, 2008 21:43:55 GMT -5
And how are the watermelon seeds I sent you doing? And the strawberry patch from the french Mara des Bois? My first corn is tasselling, I should be only slightly later than you. Your early mix is vigourous and only slightly behind.
Note to everybody having a small patch of corn: for the first time, I started a huge quantity of them, over a thousand, in 288 cell trays. It is really worth it, as you gain extra early corn, and an extra planting window pollination wise. I'll be a full month ahead because of it, actually more than that, the first plantings of seed corn rotted in the field like the peas and beans inter-planted with them, it was cold and rained all the time, a hailstorm finished the job.
I'll have a gap of a month production wise because it was worthless seeding, but at least there was some corn started, and the water did not damage it.
The melons, about 6 dozens of plants, have problems beefing up because they ned sun, we are only getting some now, none in June or so . Once again, the extra large one, Ginger's pride, shows lots of strenght, Noir des Carmes is a disaster like banana, and the others are in between. Many of the peppers I try for American gardener are slow, but some are great. They are on black plastic.
Tom's taters are slowly beefing up, at different speed as should be expected. After all the rain and the hail, I am left with close to 180 plants, although I expect 10-15 of them to barely make it if at all.
I am ready to receive and plant my 2008 fantasy vegetable, turnip-rooted chervil. I am tired of hearing how great it is from the french...
Note to other veggies explorershhhhhhhh: the french government is putting a lot of money in that crop, to get a high value vegetable replacing the sugar beet crop in northern France, moving east in poorer countries. Expect huge promotion down the road and a lot of french chefs and TV chefs to jump in the bandwagon.
It is planted like garlic in the fall to be harvested next July, and has to be cold treated for 2 months. Too bothersome for many big companies but perfect for organic gardeners.
To give you an idea of the taste ( as described by many, orflo please step in) it is a mix of potato and chesnut in a vegetable resembling an chunky stubby carrot.
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Post by orflo on Jul 6, 2008 23:07:31 GMT -5
This turnip-rooted chervil is not an easy plant to grow over here, I think it's a bit due to my heavy soil. Seeds should be sown immediately in autumn, they only germinate with the sort of stratification winter gives them. They will germinate in spring, and they have a rather short growing season. I had bulbs once, but mice ate them all, I only got to taste a little bit of it, it's a spicy chestnut taste, quite uncomparable (but very good). It's definitely worth a try, I try it every year (yes, I'm stubborn ;D). Make sure you get the 'true' turnip-rooted chervil variety, there's a Russian equivalent circulating(mostly offered as prescott), easier to grow but the taste isn't as good.
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Post by canadamike on Jul 7, 2008 19:15:06 GMT -5
To induce larger roots, my friend Patrice, living in zone 3, put the fresh seeds in moist sand for 6 weeks in the fridge. nce they start germinating, he sets them out. The plants start growing roots a bit in the fashion of garlic and explodes with growth comes spring.
rflo, it stands clay but needs lots of humous. atrice use fragmented rameal wood, because he has lots of it, any other organic mulch could do it too.
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Post by Alan on Jul 9, 2008 22:24:21 GMT -5
The tetra baby seeds have not fared well, root maggotts I'm afraid. Fortunately I held on to quite a few seeds for next season and it has high priority on next seasons list and will be propoagated and distributed in 2009. If you have any better luck please be sure to send me some more seed, I would like to do a large growout next year. The cantaloupes, muskmelons and others are doing great, blooming and setting fruit, very nice genetics at play there, the weaklings have been pulled and only the strong and responsive remain. The strawberries are doing terrific, I need to weed them and lay down some mulch which I'll probably do this Sunday when things slow down for a day or two. The alpine strawberries have been poted up and fertilized with vermicompost for this fall's greenhouse production, they responded darn near overnight to the addition of vermicompost, this weekend they will recieve a mixture of both blood meal and bone meal and will then recieve a healthy dose of bone meal weekly to push flowering along quickly. I've already cut the very first of the sweet corn which was both a mixture of 2112 and also some F1 Seneca arrowhead seed, good taste, production sucked this year though because of the weather and also raccons robing the field, as well due to the rain there have been many ear worms already, something not common usually until late august and into september. The pure patch of recombinations of Astronomy domine is silking now and setting ears, the secondary patches which are crossed into Silver King are now starting to silk and looking terrific. Cabbage, broccoli, collards, and other cole crops have been terrifically productive this year and still coming on and I've picked the first batch of provider green beans, a couple bushels will probably make it to market this weekend, at least that's the plan. My watermelon mass crosses are setting a lot of fruit now and looking fairly good given the crapshoot weather and insect pressures. Summer squash (zuchinni, scallop, yellow types, round types) are starting to set on very heavily and I've seen a few acorns and mini pumkins here and there as well as the first hubbards. Yesterday and today I planted a mix of 14 different types and colors of turnips for this fall and for breeding experiments, I also planted about 10 types of beets, purple peacock broccoli, and some of my raddish seeds from a massive mass cross of 20 different types. This weekend I'll probably finish off what is left of the first sweet corn, mow it down, work the stalks into the ground with a 3 point disc and let it set for a few days and then plant and irrigate cabbage, kale, mustards, spinach and lettuces in those places. I've also just about finnished up the first wave of micro-tom seed production and planted the second wave of plants, close to 60 or so, got some good crosses this year and will be hoping for purples and whites in the coming years, the genetics should now be there. I've also got a ton of peppers coming on, had some really nice bulgarian carrot peppers today, hotter than hell but delicious steamed and buttered on the grill with my sweet corn, squash, and broccoli! Occa and Yacone are doing well, quinoa and amaranthus are throwing up flower spikes. Carrots are forming nicely now as well. Worms are still being worms. I had a scare with the Salvia Divinorum a couple weeks ago during some pretty vicious storms, I came home from hiding in my grandmothers basement during a tornado warning and found a few of the plants just torn to pieces (they broke naturally at nodes as they should). Fortunately I was wise enough not to freak out and to also realize the opporotunity to do some propagation of new plants and to harvest leaves of the pieces to big to re-establish! I should be picking up some chickens from Plantsnoobin on Friday, really looking forward to those and to placing an order to Sandhill for more later this year. Which reminds me I also have to buy some Ginseng seed soon. I also found a nice manure spreader for sale cheap, pretty excited about that, probably pick it up next week sometime and then it will be off to the neighbors barn to pick up some high quality cow shit! My fruit trees from seed experiment is working well, I've got germination on three types of mullberries, some pears, and also some cherries, I also managed to get some nice things from Plantsnoobin, some gooseberries and serviceberries, local peaches and more! Tobacco is also flowering!  Pics to come soon. |
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Post by flowerpower on Jul 10, 2008 5:25:40 GMT -5
Considering the crappy weather you've had, it sounds like things are going pretty well on the farm.
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Post by Alan on Jul 15, 2008 19:52:15 GMT -5
Well, I've decided not to say when things are doing well or not anymore this year Flowerpower, everytime I do something else f's up. Things to look a lot better now than they did a couple of weeks ago, I'm picking a few cucumbers and winter squash now, watermelons are setting good along with muskmelon. Astronomy Domine is well upon it's way! Lot's of pics to come as soon as I get a chance!
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Post by flowerpower on Jul 15, 2008 21:36:04 GMT -5
I feel like I have been behind the whole season. I had no room to start seed early this yr because the space was taken up by my chicks. Then crazy weather. And more animal problems than I have ever seen. I should be grateful its all in the same yr. lol
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Post by canadamike on Jul 15, 2008 22:05:43 GMT -5
I feel late too, but everybody around here is like that, with all that snow and then the rain, and then the rain, and the rain and then more rain... but that is life!! Was a great year for lettuce and radish growers  The strawberries, or what's left of the season with the last late varieties, are starting to taste something, but nothing compared to last year. People are so happy to finally taste something, even minimal, that they say they are good now, proof of how terrible they were... They are now a little bit better than the florida ones, although the texture is softer and they are juicier... nothing to win any type of competition... |
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Post by flowerpower on Jul 16, 2008 6:04:55 GMT -5
Actually, my lettuce and peas did pretty good. And my pole/bush beans are going strong. I should be pulling garlic soon enough. They are done setting scapes and I see a few pushing out bulbils already. Foliage is starting to die back. I have a few maters that are doing ok- Copia, Red Zebra, BW Pink and the Orangia x Grub's Mystery Green. And I grew a ton of excellent varieties last yr, so even the volunteers should be tasty. I know I will have a ton of cherries at some point. I always do |
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Post by hoosierheightsfarm on Jul 16, 2008 23:21:30 GMT -5
I've got some tomatoes that have set. The pumpkin that I planted in the one raised bed I have complete is doing REALLY good! So is the crab grass that is growing in with it.
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Post by plantsnobin on Jul 17, 2008 8:14:41 GMT -5
I walk past my tiny little garden everyday to feed the chickens, and somehow hadn't noticed that I had cucumbers ready last week. Also some tomatoes ripe, which the chickens picked for me. Beets, onions and leeks getting too big too. Peaches are weighing down the tree, can't wait to try them. I really should have thinned them more, I am afraid they make break the limbs.
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Post by johno on Jul 17, 2008 12:32:46 GMT -5
Thanks to Wendy, I've got more Orca beans than I know what to do with (we have two large crockpots full of Orca green beans and new potatoes simmering for my brother's rehearsal dinner we're hosting tonight, and that really didn't make a dent in the green bean population.) There are several other types of beans going nuts out there, too. They seem to be one type of plant that has enjoyed the steady rains this season. The Sugar Snap peas are done now, but they were equally productive.
The Astronomy Domine sweet corn was planted in batches about 5 days apart, so some of it is past ripe for eating, and some of it is just right. I did eat two ears just to see what it tasted like. It was quite good, looks like a bicolor at the eating stage. The Rainbow Inca silks should start drying soon. There is also a row of Silver Queen that's at the same stage as Rainbow Inca. The other corns I planted a couple of weeks later just for eating (as opposed to seed stock) are covered up with beans, assorted volunteers, and other foliage, so they are struggling for light. I'm far behind on weeding...
Cukes could perhaps have been planted a little sooner, but they are growing like wildfire. The White Wonders have been producing for a few weeks. The others have some small fruits.
The winter squash that survived are Seminole Pumpkin, Tahitian, Musquee du Provence, and Shishigatani, though the last is having problems... I planted the bush types Butterbush and Autumn Glo later, and they look good. Will start breeding them as soon as the little ones flower. The one place you are sure to find honeybees is in squash blossoms, if you don't find them elsewhere.
Tomatoes are growing well, but seem slow to ripen. Purple Haze F1 is the most productive by count, but pound for pound I'd say it's neck and neck with Jet Star. Others that have attracted my attention based on productivity are Guernsey Island, Big Boy OP, Brad's Black Heart, Vorlon, and Indian Stripe. If I had had my s**t together earlier, I would have crossed a few of the above, but I had some success getting pollen to shed with my new electric toothbrush yesterday, so I'll keep trying over the next week or so.
The Watermelons are starting to flower. One hill, Osh Kirzigia (or however you spell it...) died out completely, but the others are going strong despite some unspecified insect attack. One plant in the hill of Desert King has spots like a Moons & Stars, so I'll be watching that one with particular interest. Other fun stuff going on with watermelons - more on that down the road.
The garlic harvest was good, though I thought I might get a little more size than I ended up with. I could probably sell enough to pay for this year's organic fertilizers and still have plenty of the best ones left to replant. I grew two early unnamed varieties from the Baxter County and Dallas farmers markets, one I call 'Bud's Garlic' that my father has been growing for years, Collosal, and Italian Hardneck (aka Roy Croft heirloom.) This was the first time I had good success with Asian Tempest. That one's a firecracker! Got a few new ones recently from Greenzone (thanks buddy!) to plant for next year: Polish White, Chet's Italian, Sam Loiocano, Simonetti, and Red Toch. Also had success with generating 6 little bulbs from 'garlic seeds' from Mission Randy (at Tomatoville) that came from a mutant Majestic in his patch - should reproduce the same gigantic plants next time around. None to spare until next year, as Creation Groans (from idig) is getting half of them in trade.
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Post by Alan on Aug 11, 2008 22:42:20 GMT -5
Got the first three watermelons this week! Man, Cream of Saskathewan is amazing. But be careful cutting these tricky little bastards, they will explode in your face, literally! I stuck a knife in the first one and it reacted by spiting into two pieces and throwing the upper chunk a couple of feet up in the air, other than that though, this one is a keeper and I recon a utility crop for market farming. Today I pulled a Orangeglow and a Early Moonbeam. The Orangeglo is now a new favorite! Have yet to try the yellow Early Moonbeam from Alan Kapulers breeding work with the hybrid Yellow Doll but I will soon report back.
I'm done saving Astronomy Domine Seed for the year, currently drying the last of it in the dehydrator. I'm not sure if I will make seed available just yet this year as I am seperating it into a few diverse type strains, one based on the local high schools colors (purple and gold) and a couple of others with some interesting colors (I got some green kernals finally!)
Yacone is coming along nicely, won't be long and I'll be able to harvest and taste that for the first time, I look forward to it greatly and have high hopes for it. I found out the hard way that Oca needs a bit of shade by loosing about 12 plants, no worries though, I've got about 20 more, luckily I'll still have all the colors that Orflo sent my way and the ones I lost are the common pink type that I believe Alan Kapuler introduced to America in the 80's.
Tomatoes and peppers are still growing strong and I am now harvesting the very first of the C. Pepo winter squashes. Unfortunately I lost a lot to disease and weeds, but what has survived should be terrific in coming years given that it has now live through drought and flood and insects and disease!
More updates to come shortly! Actually looking forward to frost so as to spend some time with my friends here!
-Alan
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Pics to come soon.
