Garden Thread 2023!

[DuaeGuttae]

Anyone here grow PawPaw trees? I have a couple questions regarding pollination....

I have not had experience with Paw Paw trees personally but have looked into them from time to time. Here’s a link from a good site that includes some good information and additional links.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin

www.wildflower.org

 

[begreen]

My friend up north has one. I would guess it's at least 20 yrs old now.

 

[begreen]

Yum. What will you do with all the bounty?

We had apple-blueberry crisp last weekend. Every day we are making something. Most of the blueberries get frozen or turned into jam. We are experimenting with dehydrating them too. The raspberries are getting turned into syrup and jam. The apples get stored for autumn pies, sauce and deserts plus fresh eating. We are eating a cantaloupe a day. The final tally has been 16 melons from 2 vines. They are smaller, personal sized so I have one a day for lunch. The plums will become prunes, plum jam, and I have been promised a special plum cake. And we are also roasting batches of tomatoes for canning as sauce. Next week will be canning diced tomatoes. September is a busy month!

 

[begreen]

Some of the plums made it into this delicious torte. This is the number one requested recipe at the NY Times. We make it with the lower amount of sugar and add a dash of vanilla.

Original Plum Torte Recipe

The Times published Marian Burros’s recipe for Plum Torte every September from 1983 until 1989, when the editors determined that enough was enough The recipe was to be printed for the last time that year “To counter anticipated protests,” Ms

cooking.nytimes.com

 

[NickW]

Harvested my first Crenshaw melon today with more zucchini. It has a bad spot on the bottom so I figured I should harvest it before it all gets bad. Couple more are yellowing but most are still green. Will report on the flavor.

Cooler weather is here, so the zucchini are slowing down a bit and the melons are ripening. The honeydew hybrids really took off with that hot weather growing a bunch then starting to ripen. The biggest ones are turning more yellow than green now and developing light cantelope-like ridges. I'll have melonpaloza soon I think.

 

[NickW]

First impression Crenshaw melon...

VERY JUICY and tender (very soft, squishy/mushy almost) - think watermelon juicy but not texture. Not firm like cantaloupe but similar flavor. Not as sweet and flavorful as I expected at room temperature. Green flesh close to rind isn't good. May not have been fully ripe I am guessing (picked because of the bad spot, but the flesh under the defect was fine). Peach color flesh reached the rind at the ends but had 1/2" of green flesh yet most of the way around. Will chill and see if it gets sweeter and firms up...

I think there are 18 more out there. 2 are getting pretty yellow/orange, but I think I will let them sit a few days yet. Most are still dark green. When they turn color it happens fast.

Anybody have experience with them? Will continue to report and may try a honeydew hybrid soon.

 

[EbS-P]

Anyone here grow PawPaw trees? I have a couple questions regarding pollination....

My dad has a grove in his yard. Planted several years ago 5?? Saw one fruit last year several 7?? This year but never picked one. We haven’t done anything to pollinate. Hand pollination would be my choice.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Some of the plums made it into this delicious torte. This is the number one requested recipe at the NY Times. We make it with the lower amount of sugar and add a dash of vanilla.
View attachment 315157

Original Plum Torte Recipe

The Times published Marian Burros’s recipe for Plum Torte every September from 1983 until 1989, when the editors determined that enough was enough The recipe was to be printed for the last time that year “To counter anticipated protests,” Ms

cooking.nytimes.com

That looks delicious. I clicked on the link but couldn’t view the recipe, I’m afraid.

My mom and I did some harvesting today. Here are pictures of part.

Some beans that ended up being a mixture of Rattlesnake Pole Beans and Woods Mountain Crazy Beans. It turns out that when we were planting our row that we later protected from the bunnies, we ran out of soaked seeds. My mom isn’t so familiar with my varieties, and so she grabbed some extras from my bush bush jar instead of the pole bean seeds, so we have both varieties growing now inside our mini fencing. We got about two pounds today, mostly off the Rattlesnake Pole Bean plants.



This is an Aswad eggplant that we allowed to ripen fully in order to save seeds. There was a small chance of severe storms tonight, so I went ahead and brought it inside.



We’ve run out of room in my mom’s small kitchen for the produce. She has a colander full of tomatoes and peppers and a small shopping basket with tomatoes. I decided that the two small pails full of peppers just had to go on a bookcase in the dining room for the time being.

 

[begreen]

That looks delicious. I clicked on the link but couldn’t view the recipe, I’m afraid.

Sorry about that. Just search on Marion Burros Plum Torte. It is apparently in many places now. Try this.

Purple Plum Torte From Marian Burros

Food52 Site.

food52.com

We also are spreading fruit and veggies all over the place. Every day is a processing day. I put a batch of the Italian plums into the dehydrator for an attempt at prunes or at least good dried plums. We have lots of apples so I did a couple shelves of them too.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Once again, sorry I haven't posted as much as usual. Still battling my colitis which just tires me out so much I am getting very little done. I did see a specialist. He wants to start me on a medication originally developed for patients with MS but has shown promising results in colitis patients. The med will run about $8000 a month from what I have read on the internet. I have to see how much my insurance will cover before I commit to it, especially since it will take up to 4 months just to determine if the medication is working. In the meantime, they are running me through batteries of tests: blood, hepatitis, tuberculosis, C Diff, ekg, and a few more. I have been feeling a bit better the past few days, so I want to take advantage of it.

Just picked about another 20lbs of tomatoes to make sauce. We are going to have a ton of sauce all winter. Also, dug up more of the potatoes. We won't hit 137 lbs. this year since we planted less. A lot of them went bad last winter, but we found out hanging them in mess bags in the cellar NEXT to the mesh bags of onions caused them to go bad faster. They started to get soft and sprout early.

From the internet: "Onions produce a high level of ethylene gas, which will cause potatoes to ripen — and go bad — before you're ready to use them. However, those spuds aren't completely innocent, either; potatoes' high moisture content can cause onions to liquefy and leak. Keep onions and potatoes apart for both vegetables' sakes."

Today, I am going to start on insulating the north wall of the green house with Reflectix (bubble wrap with foil on both sides). Over the Reflectix, I am going to attached 2' x 2' Phase Change panels. The pcp begin to collect heat when the greenhouse hits 65 and release the heat once the greenhouse drops below 65. Should be an added heating help during the winter along with the pond, brick floor and triple wall polycarbonate.

 

[NickW]

The Crenshaw melon is way better chilled... Super sweet, very tender and juicy. Harvested my first hybrid honeydew, definitely not ready yet. Good flavor but very firm and not sweet enough yet.

Picked some jalapenos yesterday and put some poppers together this morning for the Packers game at noon. Will get home from church and throw them in the oven.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@RockCastile , I wanted to let you know that the cucumber vines are all officially dead. My mom says that she hasn’t been able to keep cucumber alive very long for the past several years, perhaps due to some sort of wilt in the soil or carried by insects. The Sumter did slightly better than the Southern Delight, but both have succumbed. We ate a last Southern Delight just a couple of days ago. There’s still one Sumter on a dead vine that I was leaving to get mature for seed. I don’t know that I’ll accomplish that.

The beans, on the other hand, are still doing well. I’ve harvested over eighteen pounds from the row at this point. We’ve eaten most fresh but did manage to can some quarts of them. The trick is having enough at one time to fill the canner. We tend to eat them up before we manage that.

There is some insect damage on some pods, and I noticed on the last picking that some of the pods seemed to have been sliced off at the bottoms. Others seemed to have been torn open and the seeds picked out. I don’t know if that could be birds. It was a new one for me. Overall, however, the vines and bushes are in good shape and still bearing. It’s been very dry, but there’s a chance for rain this weekend. I’m sure that would help them.

 

[RockCastile]

Glad those beans are still going for you. My pole beans have given up the ghost but I have a small late planting of french filet bush beans that are still yielding small portions. If the Mexican bean beetles haven't found them at this point you're doing well.
I have the same hunch about the cukes, that there's some endemic wilt disease in the soil, possibly cycled by the cuke beetles. For the next two years if I can swing it I'm going to take cukes out of my main plot and grow them elsewhere and see if that helps. For me, the entire cucurbit family of crops has become so disease prone that I'm going to have to switch things up and focus on all the recommended strategies for disease control. I'm not the biggest fan of squash but I can't do without my cukes.

 

[Dan Freeman]

The garden is just about finished for the season. Now the massive clean up begins.

I have been working in the greenhouse the past few days. I am insulating an 8 x 20 section of the north wall with Reflectix and applying Phase Change Material panels over the insulation. Hoping to finish today.

 

[clancey]

Lots of work for you but you enjoy it and it occupies your mind--lol...What are phrase change material panels and they look pretty...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Lots of work for you but you enjoy it and it occupies your mind--lol...What are phrase change material panels and they look pretty...clancey

Phase Change Material is used to absorb free heat from the sun in winter, or unwanted heat in summer as the PCM inside the tiles goes through a melting process. At night, the panels release this heat back to the facility to save energy in winter or can exhaust heat or recharge using fresh air or cheap cooling in summer.

The phase change panels begin to collect heat when the greenhouse hits 65 (the contents melt) and release the heat once the greenhouse drops below 65 as the contents harden back up. Should be an added heating help during the winter along with the pond, brick floor and triple wall polycarbonate. Each 2x2 panel contains 400 BTUs of thermal storage potential. I have 63 panels or a bit over 25,000 BTUs of potential thermal storage.

 

[clancey]

That is so interesting and if God Wills let us know how they did after the winter is over--try to keep attract of the energy savings and heat production--very neat if it works out how it should but those PA winters can be some "cold weather", so we will see--I guess me of little faith here but we will see. Have you ever grown medicinal herbs--why you could put your Greenhouse on a truck and pull it around the nation like one of those "snake doctors" from long ago...just kidding and playing with you...everything sounds wonderful...old clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

I'm not ruling out have to supplement with heat if I grow all winter, but with the thicker triple wall polycarbonate, the brick over gravel floor, the pond and the Phase Change Material, I'm banking on minimizing the amount of heat I will have to produce with electricity. ($$$) Not sure how much I can save (possibly save), but it's all fun and an experiment.

 

[begreen]

I'm not ruling out have to supplement with heat if I grow all winter, but with the thicker triple wall polycarbonate, the brick over gravel floor, the pond and the Phase Change Material, I'm banking on minimizing the amount of heat I will have to produce with electricity. ($$$) Not sure how much I can save (possibly save), but it's all fun and an experiment.

Looks good Dan. What do you intend to grow over the winter?

PS: It's good to see you are back on your feet. Are you feeling better?

 

[begreen]

We're winding down in the garden here too. Fall weather arrived right on the calendar date. The weather has taken an abrupt change to cooler and damper. And our north slope garden is getting shaded more and more. It only gets about 6 hrs of sun now, when it's out. I harvested all tomatoes that were blushing and will watch the plants closely for any sign of rot or blight. If it shows, they will get pulled. The zucchinis are just producing a few veggies a week. I harvested all the remaining potatoes. We have a lot of peppers on the plants but are waiting for them to redden. They got planted late along with the tomatoes and eggplant due to our cold spring. Lettuce, chard, kale, beets, and cabbage are thriving. Th second planting of corn has yielded some nice ears this week. The real surprise has been the YuHo green beans. I stopped picking them a month ago to let the rest go to seed for next year. There are lots of pods developing seed now. But they have continued to grow and we have been picking fresh beans too now for a few weeks. This is the longest and most prolific bean season we have ever experienced.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Looks good Dan. What do you intend to grow over the winter?

PS: It's good to see you are back on your feet. Are you feeling better?

Ah, those damn Drs are still playing with different medications. Nothing to take care of the problem; just meds to mask the symptoms. Amazing what our health care system has become. OK. Off my pulpit...

I'm only aiming at cold winter crops until I see how the greenhouse does this first winter. I'm hoping these heat sink allowances will allow for very little supplemental power. Lettuce, spinach, kale, cabbage, etc. are my goal this first winter. Then, we will go from there.

 

[clancey]

Everything sounds good garden wise so I got in the mood..Someone threw out some rose bush trimmings and one had a half of a root so I took about four of them (sprigs) and for the fun of it planted them in my yard. I also got my tree trimmed...Pictures coming..That's enough of gardening for me...clancey

 

[NHWS]

Last year and this year have both been very good for peas, tomatoes, chard, carrots, and kale. Broccoli was better this year, but still haven't had the same success with it.

Been picking tomatoes every free moment for a few weeks. Spent much of last and this weekend processing them, and still have a lot to go. Lots of chili and Italian sauces to look forward to this fall and winter. With the arrival of the PNW fall rain rot may get a lot of the rest. The picture is from last year's crop. Tried Old Germans this year for the first time. *Huge* tomatoes, with very few seeds.

The days of going out to the garden to pick veggies for a dinner salad are unfortunately over until next year. Store bought greens just don't compare.

Had been expecting the triple the raised bed space for 2023, but a new wood stove install took too much time during the wrong period.

About a week ago a bear got itself tangled in the deer netting around a tomato patch. Ripped up the netting and pulled some of the poles out of the ground. Fortunately the deer aren't interested in the mature plants.

 

[EbS-P]

The monster keeps growing. I’m getting a pint every 3 days of tomatoes. It’s about to pick up. Two softball size eggplants are ready to pick. Temps are finally below 90 a nights below 75 as if a week ago. Starting seeds for winter greens.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Rain the past few days (and the next two days) with night temps in the 40's have finished off the gardens here.

I was able to finish covering the north wall of the greenhouse yesterday. It took 40 tiles. I still have 20+ left.