Anyone doing a garden?

[N0rt0n]

Nice harvest! But, to be honest, I think you picked them too early. There is much more green in those leaves than a ripe plant ready to be harvested. Your heads would be bigger if you waited for more dying back. The general rule i picked up was when about half of the leaves have died off from the bottom you should check them. I picked my scapes close to a month ago but I have a way to fo before they are ready for harvest.

Thanks, I have been using the 3 lower leaf method and scapes were cut almost a month earlier. I worry about them dealing with too much moisture and rotting but will give them more time next year.

 

[fredgarvin]

Thanks, I have been using the 3 lower leaf method and scapes were cut almost a month earlier. I worry about them dealing with too much moisture and rotting but will give them more time next year.

You got a nice harvest for sure.

 

[onepixel]

With the mangoes, I made mango lassi (Indian smoothies) and ice cream, which is like crack. Still need to make pickles.
Made jam from the surinam cherries.
I gave my friends a bunch. They made some mango bread and mango butter mochi.
Plus got a car wash, brownies, a box lunch, killer potato salad, cookies... I'm getting pudgy!

I'm going to pick macadamia nuts to make macadamia nut butter. Figure out what to do with the tamarind.

 

[N0rt0n]

Cleaned and trimmed

 

[orsen]

no food,but a few hundred flowers for the back yard.
i have never done this, all seed are harvested from my yard, perennials and annuals.
View attachment 3454888

most of my seeds failed, i dont know why. so my gf bought all kinds of random seeds. perennials and annuals.
ended up with 3 times this many trays in a 10 x 10 room
i had to figure out what to do with em
guess it worked



this last one is a moon flower, they bloom in the dark and only last one night. the plant grows many so it blooms a few weeks

.

 

[onepixel]

Macadamia Nuts

 

[BillyTheKid]

Slow growing season this year in CT. Plenty of heat waves , not much rain except when it pours.
Early April:



Yesterday: String beans are just starting to bloom. Chard just sits there, arugula can't be stopped. Got weird caterpillars on the dill.



At least the basil is having a good time on the porch !

 

[LHorn]

Anyone dealing with a very slow growth of vegetables this year despite nice weather? I've had great weather here except for two separate 3-4 day heatwaves a few weeks apart...and a decent amount of rain. I usually have huge crop of peppers by mid-July but so far just a few here and there. I even started them like 3 weeks earlier than usual.

It's not just me either...a couple neighbors have told me their tomatoes are slow this year and our local sweet corn grower had to stop selling for two weeks because the second planting is slower than expected getting to harvest.

Fortunately I dont really need a lot for this year...but still just a weird year. The ones that I have picked are normal size and quality...but so far that amount I picked would fit in a shoe box. So basically I see one...cut it up and have it with supper.

Any ideas for the culprit? We have been getting hit hard from Canada's wildfire's smoke the last couple weeks but I dont think that would affect the plants much.

 

[BillyTheKid]

I don't know why, but it's a terrible growing year here too.
Last year at this time i was overloaded with cherry tomatoes. This year I have yet to pick even one.

 

[LHorn]

I don't know why, but it's a terrible growing year here too.
Last year at this time i was overloaded with cherry tomatoes. This year I have yet to pick even one.

Strange. I was going to start picking some that were a fair size to hopefully get a second crop...but I dont see that happening at this rate. I know picking will encourage growth but I'll just shoot for letting them ripen to red (or chocolate for the Mulato's) this year. The main one I need is the jalapeno's. I tried one and it doesnt have near the heat I need ...so since they are loaded with fruit I'm gonna start stressing them somewhat until they're red ripe.

As a side note the Spitfire peppers are plagued with BER again this year as well so I will not be planting them ever again.

 

[fredgarvin]

The cold rain we had in June slowed the tomatoes down considerably, causing blossom drop, but we are finally getting ripe Champions. The Early Girls got it the worst and they are still green. Everything else did well, especially the cold weather crops.

 

[LHorn]

What 50% of the two Spitfire plants are putting out...same as last year. Too bad too because I really wanted these to work out as they grow huge and are easy to roast and skin.

 

[TomD62]

Eggplants are running late, just like last year, but ripe tomatoes are picked daily. As are zucchini, peppers, and cucumbers.

 

[LHorn]

My fridge was getting packed so its time to do some roasting and smoking. Pretty pitiful compared to the years before. The Lesya's (left side) still have a lot on the plants that need to ripen...they have been great but still smaller this year. Same as the jalapeno's....only a few ripe in the middle right at the bottom. I have plenty of smoked paprika still so I plan to make Ancho chilies with the poblano and anaheim's. The jalapeno's will be turned into chipotle paste to heat my batches of chili. Not sure what I'll do with the Lesya's yet...maybe just smoke and vac seal them.

 

[LHorn]

Man I do love these Lesya peppers. Roasted, peeled, de-seeded then smoked weighed in at a little over 8 lbs. You can see all the syrup from them in the bowl I froze with them....and another pint or so I kept out to include in the chipotle paste when they are all the jalapeno's have ripened. Not sure what to do with the 8 lbs. of peppers though...they're almost too sweet to put in my chili.

It freaked the neighbor's kids out when I was roasting them on the grill...the sweet juice would hit the grill and they thought I was making cotton candy.

The poblano's got smoked and dehydrated for ancho powder as did the others but kept separate for more paprika.

 

[LHorn]

Still have quite a few green jalapeno's and Lesya's on the plants...hoping they'll have time to ripen before the cold sets in. I just cut up and froze one batch of peppers yesterday. I'll hold them until the rest are ready or I have to pick them...to be smoked and dried. I made a chipotle paste with 6 jalapeno's for my chili a couple weeks ago that gave it the perfect amount of heat. Gonna do the rest like that and freeze them in ice cube trays then vac seal them so I have little "firebricks" to heat stuff up when needed. The rest of the peppers I'm thinking of turning into a makeshift mole sauce and freeze it the same way.

Anyone ever run across this before? This jalapeno had a circle...another one a few weeks ago had a rectangle on it. The meat inside and out showed no signs of anything peculiar.

 

[CT Jim]

Good year for some peppers. The Jimmy Nardello plants are still putting out red ripe peppers, and the Puya Chili made some awesome crushed red pepper flakes, with a bit more heat so I have to be careful!

 

[N0rt0n]

Cleaned and trimmedView attachment 3554070

This was German Hardneck that we purchased from an Amish farm from Lancaster PA.

Yesterday we drove up to Easton PA for their yearly Garlic Festival. This was my first but won't be my last. Over 150 vendors with every food with garlic you can think of. People selling weed, wineries, distilleries and I even got some Dewey Swishy Pants on tap. We bought some overpriced heirloom Italian Music Garlic grown in Ohio to plant. Better be real good for $8 each. The festival was a blast and the weather could not have been better. It is going on today also but yiu will walk a mile if you find parking at this time of the day. We got there as it opened at 10 and walked a half mile.

 

[RickeyM]

While the tomatoes have been disappointing this year, peppers and strawberries have been doing well. Strawberries, real well. Every day or two I have to go out and pick them. Sometimes twice a day, morning and evening, to get them at their peak. Ever since I build a slug resistant planter stand they've been doing great and I haven't lost any to slugs. I've been harvesting them and freezing what I don't eat right away.

 

[CT Jim]

@N0rt0n
I typically buy my extra seed garlic from a few tried sources, but one year back in CT I bought some last minute seed stock from the CT garlic festival.
I had 300 in the ground that year, but when the garlic mite was thru I had about 70, just a flat out disaster. I took some of the bulbs to the local Agricultural Farm run by the State of CT, they found the mite under microscope. That bed was dead from then on for garlic.

Since that time I use a garlic soak procedure outlined at www.Keeneorganics.com
about 20 minutes in vodka, then 15 minutes in mild fertilizer/fish emulsion soak......no problems anymore. I still do the same soak scenario here in NC just to be safe. I have 75% saved seed stock, and I always buy backup in case the stored garlic starts to dry out. This year I will have 110 again, of four types. Last harvest was very good except for one type, which won't be tried again. But I only had 16 that were small and didn't have a good cover wrap.