FINALLY!

[lavandulagirl]

Some pretty female flowers on my winter squashes! It has been a really weird start to the season, but Pink Banana (Thanks, Grunt!) and Kabocha are finally sporting some mini fruit. Now Musquee and Acorn need to catch up.

So... what is growing slow for you guys?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Jul 9, 2010 19:34:12 GMT -5 lavandulagirl said:

So... what is growing slow for you guys?

My early spring crops were planted two months earlier this year than last year (due to better preparation on my part) so they are way ahead of last year. My radishes, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, and first crop beets and onions are already gone. I tilled under the empty rows tonight. I am currently harvesting onions, peas, cabbage, turnips, and carrots.

I'm breeding cantaloupe again this year, and one plant (out of a few hundred) is already up, and blooming, and has a baby cantaloupe on it while many of the rest are barely two or three leafs. It's already got a stake next to it to as a candidate for the "Earliest Cantaloupe Ever!!!"

Some of my summer squash are just starting to bloom. (Fruit in a week?) Painted Mountain corn is tasseling. My first crop corn met our traditional "Knee high by the 4th of July" standard.

My cherry tomatoes seem right on schedule to start ripening fruit around the 24th of July.

A few plantings of corn failed for me this spring due to so much rain so early and my clayish soil (and me planting sugary enhanced seeds), so by the time I replanted they ended up being later than normal, but not bad. I expect my first crop of corn to be Long Island Seed Project's Ashworth, followed by Astronomy Domini which thrived under the same planting conditions that killed off the sugary enhanced corn.

2/3 of my watermelon didn't germinate, so I planted another row 4 inches to the side, which came up great, but a few weeks behind, but what else can I expect when I try to extend the season. Maybe someone will develop a perennial watermelon. We have a wild plant here bryonia alba, which looks like a close relative of watermelon, and it is a perennial in our cold climate.

Regards,
Joseph

[mnjrutherford]

Slow? Jeepers, nothing is going really slow this year it seems. I'm getting ready to re-plant a lot of stuff. Radish is something we are planting every so often in particular because we feed it to the birds. I NEED to replant the sugarbeets. The first crop is still doing well though it needs a good weeding at the moment. We haven't eaten the greens for awhile and I'm thinking they would be good for dinner tonight.

I'm pulling most of the bean plants at this time. I've been bringing in dried seed to re-plant and I think I'll do that in August. The Black Valentine and ::sigh:: can't think of the name at the moment... a pink marbled bean did the best of all. I seem to have "issues" with getting seed from the fresh eating beans, Lazy Housewife and Rattlesnakes in particular. Advice is hoped for here! My method to date is to allow the pod to go almost completely dry on the vine, then bring it it and set it under the fan with all the other drying things. I shell them when completely dry.

The garlic has done fairly well and I processed the last of the harvest last night. I regret to report that my labeling system was a disaster so of the 23 named varieties Pugs sent me, I only know 12 by name. Pugs, if you read this, I apologize. I also would like to know where you got the garlic from because I need to read about the varieties you sent me AND I want to replace the ones I've "lost". By my calculations I will need to plant about 150 to 200 bulbs this coming fall and I while I will have some seed garlic saved at that time, I will need to supplement a goodly portion. Yea, we really are eating that much garlic!

The onions were a total bust between the deer and the weeds. The shallots were also a bust for the same 2 reasons although they did multiply and I have them drying down and I'll replant them this fall. OH! On the garlic... I do have some bulbils! IF I plant the bulbils... what will I get? Teeny tiny garlics? Even if it would just be good for seed the second year, that would work for my purposes.

The corn is doing some very interesting things. The starch corn is amazingly tall and the ears are really swelling at this point in time. I've put a couple dozen sweet ears in the freezer and cut the kernels off a few dozen more which I then fried and put into the freezer as well.

The blackberries are doing amazingly well and we've eaten several cobblers so far. I've laid out the seed with the hopes of having them sprout then replanting them along the forest margins and MAYBE selling a few at market. We will be turning the back patch over to brambles next year and I'm tracking down thornless boysenberries to that end.

Tomatoes are still an issue. I'm tossing away about 6 tomatoes for every tomato kept. Even the kept ones have to be tossed as they develop rot to the point of being inedible. I have replaced a few of the original 36 with Franchi Red (3), Wis55G (2), BOSU, and LongTom (1 each). I have more to replace but haven't had the time to do it yet.

We butchered 2 birds and ate 1 fried. I'm making chicken and dumplings with the second one today. The guineas have been sitting on their eggs which began hatching yesterday. We are one excited bunch at the moment, looking forward to gathering the babies when they leave the nest.

All in all, it's a good year so far and we've learned SO much! Not to mention all the truly excellent eats!

[happyskunk]

Watermelon is finally starting to grow here. The average temperature for June is the 3rd coolest in the last 60 years.