Anyone doing a garden?

[LHorn]

As I've posted previously, we eat salad almost every night entirely from the garden. All of it is great, but the single best thing is arugula. I use seedlings not seeds (I'm not hard core like most of you), and I couldn't find arugula anywhere, so about 2 months after I planed everything else I bought 12 arugula seedlings from Amazon. Bizarrely, about 8 of them got eaten, not sure why the other 4 survived. They've stayed pretty small -- kind of "Charlie Brown Christmas tree" arugula -- so I can only pick a leaf or two for each salad. But arugula is so fragrant that it makes impact even in tiny doses in a huge salad.

I've got to figure out how to grow it properly, but fresh grown arugula is truly special. Would love to get advice if anyone has experience growing it.

Cant help you there. I grew lettuce once when I still lived in MD and the snails ruined it. The deer destroyed everything else.

 

[peterp1]

I saw strange orange stalks coming up from one of my mulched landscaping beds. I looked it up with AI, which said they are "stinkhorn" fungus. AI says they are harmless, but they apparently smell bad, attract bugs, and the bugs spread the spores to the rest of the yard to spread them. There were only a couple stalks visible, so I was very much "on the fence" about removing them -- however, when I used a 3-pronged rake to look under the 2 stalks -- I saw found a huge number quail-sized rubbery eggs, so I decided to remove them. It looks like there were around 60 (relatively large) eggs in an 8" square space -- so it kind of looks like they were ready to become an infestation, so I suspect I made the right choice.





They are piled up in the bag, I think around 60 eggs in total

 

[onepixel]

Not a lot avocados this year.
But the ones I got are pretty big.
Small pits and creamy.

 

[bobsvinyl]

Just did raspberries this year, but it was a bumper crop. We've been baking all week and supplying our family and neighbors as well. Some of the plants reached 7 feet.

 

[peterp1]

Just did raspberries this year, but it was a bumper crop. We've been baking all week and supplying our family and neighbors as well. Some of the plants reached 7 feet.

View attachment 3843224

Seeing your post, I looked up how to grow raspberries (would love to have fresh) -- it sounds like they reproduce like crazy. I probably couldn't put them in the garden (which is small and VERY full) -- but I have area under a privacy tree in the back yard where it would be fine if they grew like crazy.

Apparently they will grow be okay in NJ, but I'd guess I'd have to wait until next year to plant them.

 

[bobsvinyl]

Seeing your post, I looked up how to grow raspberries (would love to have fresh) -- it sounds like they reproduce like crazy. I probably couldn't put them in the garden (which is small and VERY full) -- but I have area under a privacy tree in the back yard where it would be fine if they grew like crazy.

Apparently they will grow be okay in NJ, but I'd guess I'd have to wait until next year to plant them.

I grew up in Bergen County and raspberies would do great in NJ. Mine are in cold New England. I didn't fertilize this year and they are in partial shade and they just wouldn't stop growing. I cut down the stalks to about a foot high in the late fall or early spring.

 

[peterp1]

I grew up in Bergen County and raspberies would do great in NJ. Mine are in cold New England. I didn't fertilize this year and they are in partial shade and they just wouldn't stop growing. I cut down the stalks to about a foot high in the late fall or early spring.

The area I way to put them, it would be great if they grow wildly. Can I plant them now, or am I correct in assuming I should wait till next year?

 

[bobsvinyl]

The area I way to put them, it would be great if they grow wildly. Can I plant them now, or am I correct in assuming I should wait till next year?

I"m no expert, but I would say plant them in the spring after your frosts are done. Here the safe zone is after Memorial Day.

 

[RickeyM]

It's been a dissapointing year for tomatoes. I cut down from two tomato plants to one this year because before I always had more fruits than I knew what to do with. The dissapointment is not from the number but the size. Medium to small fruits are all I'm getting. I spent some time tiddying up my tomato plant yesterday. At this time of the season the plant stems get long and need trying up for support. After pruning diseased/dying leaves and stems the poor plant looks positively naked. That said, there are around two dozen tomatoes growing on it in various stages. We had lots of rain over the weekend and it cost me several tomatoes from splitting. The good news is there's actually new growth and even a few buds sprouting. In this area of the DMV I have maybe two more months of growing season before frost hits. The more good news is it's going to be warmer/sunnier the rest of the week and good, moderate growing weather three weeks into October.

 

[LHorn]

I saw strange orange stalks coming up from one of my mulched landscaping beds. I looked it up with AI, which said they are "stinkhorn" fungus. AI says they are harmless, but they apparently smell bad, attract bugs, and the bugs spread the spores to the rest of the yard to spread them. There were only a couple stalks visible, so I was very much "on the fence" about removing them -- however, when I used a 3-pronged rake to look under the 2 stalks -- I saw found a huge number quail-sized rubbery eggs, so I decided to remove them. It looks like there were around 60 (relatively large) eggs in an 8" square space -- so it kind of looks like they were ready to become an infestation, so I suspect I made the right choice.

View attachment 3837779

View attachment 3837780

They are piled up in the bag, I think around 60 eggs in total
View attachment 3837781

Yep they earned their name for sure...had some growing along the house a couple years ago. Pretty cool looking before they wilt though.

 

[LHorn]

It's been a dissapointing year for tomatoes. I cut down from two tomato plants to one this year because before I always had more fruits than I knew what to do with. The dissapointment is not from the number but the size. Medium to small fruits are all I'm getting. I spent some time tiddying up my tomato plant yesterday. At this time of the season the plant stems get long and need trying up for support. After pruning diseased/dying leaves and stems the poor plant looks positively naked. That said, there are around two dozen tomatoes growing on it in various stages. We had lots of rain over the weekend and it cost me several tomatoes from splitting. The good news is there's actually new growth and even a few buds sprouting. In this area of the DMV I have maybe two more months of growing season before frost hits. The more good news is it's going to be warmer/sunnier the rest of the week and good, moderate growing weather three weeks into October.

I saw a video the other day that they were saying you should always pull tomatoes as soon as they start blushing then ripen them with the stem side down. They said the flavor has set by the blush stage and keeping on the vine only risks insects, BER or splitting after that. Dunno...I always hear vine ripened tomatoes were best. I guess they are as long as nothing happens to them.

In other news...it dropped down to the 30's last night and aint looking any better in the future so I stripped most of the plants. The Lesya plants are falling over heavy with peppers still but mostly green yet...doubt if they will get red before I have to pull them too.

 

[peterp1]

Yep they earned their name for sure...had some growing along the house a couple years ago. Pretty cool looking before they wilt though.

It was pretty insane how many of those quail egg-sized sacks there were under those two tiny stalks in an 8" x 8" square (about 60) -- it seem like crazy fast reproduction, but they weren't anywhere else but in that tiny 8" square area. I'm glad I got rid of them, I don't know if they would have reproduced into something much. larger left alone.

 

[peterp1]

I saw a video the other day that they were saying you should always pull tomatoes as soon as they start blushing then ripen them with the stem side down. They said the flavor has set by the blush stage and keeping on the vine only risks insects, BER or splitting after that. Dunno...I always hear vine ripened tomatoes were best. I guess they are as long as nothing happens to them.

In other news...it dropped down to the 30's last night and aint looking any better in the future so I stripped most of the plants. The Lesya plants are falling over heavy with peppers still but mostly green yet...doubt if they will get red before I have to pull them too.

View attachment 3851396
View attachment 3851397

We are rank amateurs, but are going to make dried Korean chili (Gochugaru) out of our Korean peppers. There's been a ton of peppers, but it's taken forever for them to turn red. In the other garden area I have a bunch more growing, but none of them have turned red yet. I guess they'll get there. The varying levels of dryness in the photo below reflects the bit-by-bit harvesting:

 

[LHorn]

@peterp1 ...See that's the problem with growing peppers like that...they look like candy but they bite back. I can handle a little in my Kung Pao once in awhile but that's about it for me. You are braver than I am.

The Habanero's I sent to my son even put him back in his chair...and he likes it hot. I think the stress from the weather this summer increased the heat level on them. The light green ones in the pic aren't too bad...I can almost eat them.

As usual here in the NE I've run out of time for them to get red ripe...39°F again this morning. In the first pic on the far right the big heart shaped Lesya's left on the plant like to grow clumped together. The one that's half green I had to cut out because it was going to split the branches. You get 6 or 7 tennis ball sized peppers on one branch and its going down if not caged or tied up. They are also very heavy because they are very thick walled...like 1/4". Hopefully they will turn red before freezing.

 

[RickeyM]

We had a low of 50* here last night. We're still getting moderate daytime temps tho'. Temps below that for a certain period of time, peppers go dormant. I'm leaving mine on the plants for now if they turn or not. A green pepper is better than no pepper. A silver lining is it's cut down drastically on the flying bloodsuckers (mosquitos) activity.

 

[peterp1]

The Korean peppers are pretty random when they're green -- a lot of times they are nearly as mild as bell peppers (which I'm also growing) and sometimes they are hot as the hottest jalopenos (which also have a range of hotness). They are way milder than the thai peppers (which look similar but are much smaller), which are pretty insane. The red Korean peppers seems pretty hot -- we haven't really had them, they all get dried and this is the first time we are making Gochugaru, so I have no idea how it will turn out once it is done.

I know with store-bought Gochugaru, the best quality stuff (and the stuff we sometimes buy directly from Korea) is actually quite mild -- it's the cheaper Gochugaru that is pretty spicy. I love it mild because it has a bit of a bite (it's a little bit more like crystals than powder) and doesn't overpower anything so I use a lot more than I would other types of pepper. We'll see how ours turns out.

 

[CT Jim]

@PeterP
Some of the more exotic pepper flakes make experimenting a lot of fun. Now, I have no interest in Habenero and others in that class, but I do like Aleppo, Calabrian, Gochugaru, Urfa, and more that I use in the pantry. I found a great place to find these at reasonable pricing is at www.spicewalla.com
This is a NC spice seller hitch has numerous odd spices, and which I highly recommend.
They usually grind to order, have a boatload of spice blends, and I even tried one of their 16oz tins of VOO. Now that is a classy pepper olive oil.
Worth checking into!