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Post by shoshannah on Oct 2, 2016 20:51:06 GMT -5
That's an impressive pile of squash. Congrats on the weight loss.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Oct 2, 2016 21:23:58 GMT -5
Your beans look great. I'm still shelling mine, but hope to take some pictures soon. I still have a bunch of tomato pics to post sometime too. I think i will finally create my own "doings" thread when i have time. But i have good news to report on my beans this year, i actually did get a few purple-podded runner beans. And while i was shelling some of the others i think i found a few natural crosses. One cross that looked cool is a cross between the Rio Zape or Purple Hopi String Bean and what looks like with a smaller pinto-type bean. It has the size and shape of the smaller bean, but the color pattern of the Rio Zape. Looks pretty cool! I think in coming years i will start doing more manual crosses with beans like i have been with the peas.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 6, 2016 21:44:41 GMT -5
I'm in harvest-frenzy mode right now. I keep stacking more squash into the greenhouse.  |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Oct 7, 2016 1:20:23 GMT -5
You WildX5 tomatoes did well (now wild zebra?) and produced abundantly. Some of them tasted pretty good. I don't think they were the best I've tasted, maybe that's a slight difference in acidity preference, not sure, but they are worth growing again and keeping around. I didn't get any of the other two plants to survive long enough to trial, but i have plenty of seed to plant again. I was pleasantly happy that you provided abundant amount of seed in your tomato packets. Did any of the commercial tomatoes i sent you do well enough to grow again? I think you mentioned a few yellow ones might have. I found the Fantom Du Laos tomatoes to be quite tasty the first time i tasted them, but they have super tiny seeds which is odd. The wildx5 needed to be fully ripe, maybe even longer than what i expected to taste good. But once they were they were overall decent. The Anasazi that i got from Boulder Colorado tasted great early in the season but bland late in the season. Since many of the tomatoes seemed to change flavor from early season to later in the season i'm not sure if it was my taste buds changing or something else. I'm new to actually having tomatoes grow in my yard. I got a few tiny orange tomatoes that i think are galapagos tomatoes despite me believing all those plants died in the seedling stage. The unknown and unlabeled tomato plant was the one that was the galapagos. The tomatoes were fairly good despite being so small. Worth experimenting again now that i know how not to plant them too early and with inadequate lighting. I still have a few late blue tomatoes i look forward to trying. I got one large large ruffled red tomato and a few large to medium orange ones. I have look and see which varieties those were.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 7, 2016 9:29:49 GMT -5
keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.): Thanks for the grow report and seeds. I planted 72 varieties of tomatoes that are new to me. That included the galapagos and cheesmaniae species: which didn't germinate. 48 of the varieties germinated, and survived the greenhouse long enough to be planted into the field. About 9 of them died in the field. I planted about 7 seeds per variety, and kept 3 seedlings per variety, so if a variety died out, all of the plants for that variety croaked. Four varieties produced ripe fruit before the first fall frost. One of them was a very tiny cherry tomato, so was culled for that reason. One of them was a roma tomato and was culled. There was a 2 oz red-fruited plant that I saved for seed, and a 12 oz striped brown/green tomato. The larger tomato also had an open flower structure! Most of the new varieties were indeterminate, which tend to not work well in my garden. Between the first frost, and the plants finally being fully dead, some more varieties ripened. One that was pretty was a yellow cherry tomato with purple shoulders. Another was a fuzzy peach colored tomato which ripened a lot of fruit, but it was highly blemished, so I haven't saved seeds from it. So that makes a 94% failure rate on the new-to-me tomato varieties: Just what I've come to expect.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 12, 2016 20:27:35 GMT -5
My squash field is harvested, tilled, and had a mixed-species cover crop planted into it.
My other fields are partially harvested, and partially tilled. I really should keep the tractor out of the fields until every crop is completely harvested. I accidentally tilled under the okra seed crop!!!
I spent the past few days planting crops that I'm evaluating for winter hardiness such as favas, garbanzos, mustard spice, etc. I planted shallots, garlic, and potato onions. Julie, a local collaborator grew a bunch of Kral turnip-rooted parsnip seed and shared it with me, so I planted that, and am excited to get that project restarted after my move a year ago.
I harvested the edible dahlia project today. I tasted each plant. About half were culled for low-productivity, funky taste, or for being too fibrous. I dug the Zea diploperennis, and Zea perennis tubers and stuck them into a root pit. They did not flower.
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Post by philagardener on Oct 12, 2016 20:43:05 GMT -5
I really should keep the tractor out of the fields until every crop is completely harvested. I accidentally tilled under the okra seed crop!!! This is the trouble with big machines. You feel the power and then all h*ll breaks loose . . .  |
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Post by reed on Oct 13, 2016 7:23:35 GMT -5
I don't have a tractor but my devil's claw plants met a similar fate to my big weed eater on wheels. Joseph, what is included in your winter cover mix? I just planted turnips and some radish but I think it is probably a little late for the radish. They probably won't grow much before freeze get em.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 13, 2016 8:39:30 GMT -5
Joseph, what is included in your winter cover mix? I planted a bag of pigeon food from the local co-op, and added some cold-hardy legumes from the grocery store, and cleaned out my seed stash. The seeds in the cover crop mix included, but were not limited to: shelling peas, Austrian winter peas, soup peas, favas, garbanzos, lentils, corn, milo, safflower, millet, sunflower, wheat, rye, breadseed, cilantro, spinach, mustard, bok choi, turnip, onion, tomatillos, dill. etc. I planted the pigeon food for the peas and wheat. I expect the corn to croak. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 16, 2016 18:59:10 GMT -5
I added a new field to my farm for next growing season. It's behind the bike in the photo. It is two acres. I have farmed it before, but was told (by the supposedly new owners) that they had bought it, but in reality the sale fell through, so the old owner finally found me and asked me to continue farming it. It's larger than I want, so I'm intending to mow part of it, and garden part of it. I'll be putting perennials in, as if I'm going to be farming it for a long time. I can sure move a lot of vegetables on my bike and cargo trailer. Recently, I finally got around to adding a quick release to the trailer.  |
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Oct 16, 2016 21:38:21 GMT -5
That bike with that basket and trailer always surprises me and gives me a smile too. I think you said it's a simple homemade design. Can you show us a few more pictures of how it fits together and or how it was made? Haha i almost think you should make a bigger one like what is often seen in those chinese movies where a biker or runner is paid to shuttle two people around a park or a city. If you did have a bigger one i'm sure you could haul plenty of things to market.  p.s. that field sure looks serene and that pole and the grass and/or wheat give it a serene sort of character to it. I keep imagining a light warm breeze passing over it as one gazes over the mountains. Makes me feel peaceful. I'm glad to hear it has returned to you for care and planting, however long that may be. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 16, 2016 23:51:18 GMT -5
The day I took that photo, I had a cargo of about 220 pounds. (Sounds like about two small Asians.) Adding my own weight, and the weight of the bike and trailer, gross weight was about 470 pounds. That was right at the maximum weight I could handle, after biking 9 miles to the field, working all day harvesting, and then dealing with an 11% uphill grade. Not that I enjoyed the 3% grades... Fortunately, the grade going home was only about 1 mile uphill, and 8 downhill. Trailer. Designed to fit my most commonly used crate size.  The trailer hitch is electrical conduit, held onto the frame of the bike with hose clamps:  I need to move irrigation pipe to my new field next spring. They are 40 feet long, 4" diameter metal tubes. I have already planned a modification on this trailer to use it to haul the pipes. |
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Post by philagardener on Oct 17, 2016 5:29:12 GMT -5
11% grade - you may need boxes with higher sides, Joseph Lofthouse ! Make sure someone else gets a picture of the mod when you are carrying those 40' pipes! You better keep your hands on the handlebars!  |
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Post by steev on Oct 17, 2016 19:22:07 GMT -5
Obviously it would be easiest to haul those pipes standing on end.
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Post by philagardener on Oct 17, 2016 20:03:46 GMT -5
 Upstanding idea, can't wait to take a gander at what might happen next . . .  |
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