What veg or fruit will be new for you next year?

Johnny come lately here, but darius and other's comments on sweet potatoes for next season inspired me to give it a try. I stuck several toothpicks in a store bought sweet potato (variety unknown), and submerged it halfway in a quart jar. The jar was placed in a north facing window in my kitchen and now has lots of roots and maybe a slip or two starting. Our short season here is not well suited for garden raised sweets so I thought I might try using a large container which could be transferred to the heated hoop house in mid-March and later outside when conditions are right. I plan to use a mixture of MG potting soil, some well aged cow manure, and some vermiculture media for the potting mix. Figured I would plant the entire potato in the pot once the slips are doing well. Any suggestions on this method would be greatly appreciated.

morgan

Wish I could hep you but I have never raised SP before. Will be looking forward to your progress.

mraider3, let us know how it turns out!

For those interested, my sweet potatoes grew about 12-18" deep last year in TX. I did keep them watered, they did super great. And this was in clay soil. I did get a soil test done and fertilized with their recommendations (Brix).

New things I want to try are Heirloom tomatoes -- way too many! I've already started 5 kinds and have 8 more on order. I was so anxious to get back to TX to grow tomatoes and get some before the first September freeze I experienced in Montana. I've been gardening two years here now and have yet to get a decent crop.

I also want to grow decent corn here -- preferably without worms. I was spoiled in MT. Growing up in TX , I was shocked when I grew corn in MT and there were no worms. I had to send pictures to my dad. I was shocked, thought corn and cornworm came as a packaged deal. It was wonderful. Recommendations to a decent wormfree southern brand appreciated.

Here I am in sweet potato heaven--they have a sweet potato festival every year just down the road from my house--and I've not even tried to grow any. Hmmmm, you all are inspiring me! I see that Willhite's has slips and will send at the right time to plant....Hmmmmmm, again.....

I don't know of a worm proof sweet corn. We were talking about using Bt on another thread. I try to stick with organic so I want to learn if I can use anything else, too. Sweet corn was sooooo easy up in Illinois!

Any suggestions about types of sweet potatoes? I got Sand Hill Preservation's catalogue the other day and they have a ton of varieties; it would be awfully hard to decide which you wanted!

Last year I bought a sweet potato from the grocery store (one I tried and liked), put it in a jar to root (make sure it is half in and half out of the water, using toothpicks if necessary to keep it up). Eventually it will sprout green growth. Once they are a few inches long, gently use your fingers to remove them from the potato, taking a bit of potato with the green. Take this and either sit it in water to root or in a small pot of moist soil. Then when it is rooted and the weather is nice and warm outside (no chance of frost), it is time to plant. It is that simple. Plant either the rooted cutting that is in water or the potted one. If it complains and gets limp, give it a day or two. It will be fine. Oh, make sure you have climitized it before setting outside in the hot sun. Keep watered and before your first frost, dig up. Yumm!

That sounds easy. I'd better get that tater growing now.

Thank you gretta for that information on planting sweet potato slips. Just exactly what I was looking for.

As for gardening in TX vs MT I can identify. Gardening here is way different than Wichita Kansas. As for corn Farmerdill is an expert on the subject and he got me to planting my corn seed 14-inches apart in the rows. It made an amaizing difference in production. I got three times the crop with a third the seed. The 'Farmerdill' almanac calls for planting seed corn when the apple blossoms fall, but I like to warm the soil with some black plastic mulch to help the seed germinating process. I always purchase more seed than I need to fill in any blank spots where seed didn't germinate. I don't have enough time to stager my plantings so we harvest all our corn about the same date. You will probably find that there is enough growing season to either stager you corn plantings by several weeks or use several varieties with stagered harvest dates. Like I said gretta, there are some really good experts here in DG on that subject.

mraider -- good hints on the corn, thanks. Something I did with corn while in MT -- to get a head start and to prevent and duds.

I started them inside -- easier than you think. I took a regular seeding flat (no holes in the bottom), filled with moist potting soil, scattered seed closely, then covered. Once they germinate, they are ready to set outside. Sometimes they didn't get outside as soon as I wanted, thanks to the weather or life in general. Some even started to grow green shoots. I would gently pull the roots out of the soil and plant. Worked! I grew my best corn while in MT.

I'm going to try an artichoke this year. Someone brought artichoke dip to work and I loved it. Got to checking out how they grow and it looks like a cool plant so this is going to be the something new for me this year.

Pam

I've been thinking of trying chokes too.

greta-g, thanks for that tip. I tried using toilet paper rolls for corn transplants once but they didn't work. I had thought about black plastic to warm the soil before seeding, but the combination of these two methods may get me a couple of weeks head start. Even using the almanac's recommendation of planting corn seed when the apple blossoms fall, the germination time can still be slow.

I only grew corn once (and not much at that), when I lived in Maryland and didn't even have a garden. I started seeds early in cups, and transplanted them in hills at a friend's garden. We ATE corn on the 4th of July.

Yummy Darius! I have had home grown corn all of my life. Dad still raises several rows. He will be 90 this year. His favs are Kandy, Korn and Incredible. They are delish. We always freeze some on the cob and maked cream style too.

Hey Teresa! Good for your Dad to be still gardening!!!

I am thinking of trying a few hills of corn this year. I have traded for seed but I need to find room.

After years of no veggies (tranformed my vegetable garden to an herb garden about 4 seasons ago), I am going to plant mile-long beans, carrots, and lettuce in a raised bed for my granddaughter to harvest. I am taken with Territorial Seeds "Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed" lettuce -- has anyone grown this?

I have never heard of it.

In my opinion, the drunken woman lettuce is a slightly larger version of Red Sails.

I just can't pass up the name, it is a pretty lettuce, and open pollinated so I should be able to save seed for a 1-time purchase. Win-win-win. And if it is tasty, yet another win.

I am late to this conversation, I just wanted to let terri know about my experiences with asparagus bean. You will need a very strong trellis for this monster. I don't think they tast at all like asparagus, they were good in their own way. They hold up better in cooking than green beans, although most oriental food is cooked quickly.

I have grown DWFH lettuce. I think I agree with lettuceman, Red Sails is very similar. There seems to be a few varieties that are quite similar. But who can resist the a name like that? That is half the fun of growing your own veggies--the peculiar names.

westtngal, thanks for the info. I have a couple of very sturdy trellises planned for this season. One from some small trees we had to cut, and a couple of cattle panel trellises. Sounds like some fun both in the garden and in the kitchen! =D

Has anyone grown salsify or cardoon. I ordered seeds for both, and I would like to try using them in my ornamental beds. I really want to try more edible landscaping than just strictly ornamentals.

I grow cardoon. It is beautiful especially in the winter.
It will take lots of room. One plant 3-4 '
It is a wonderful showcase in the spring.

I tried salsify and didn't get much out of it - just some very skinny roots. Cardoons are supposed to be neat but I've never tried them.

Artichoke is another beautiful and large landscape plant - gorgeous flowers (although you then lose the fruit, so maybe not so useful as an 'edible').

drthor, is it hardy in your zone or do you replant it. also it syas to wrap it up with cardboard and twine after the first frost to blanch it. How do you harvest it?

The cardoon is hardy in my zone. It got bid up last week by the 100 more hours of freeze temperature. But it is still alive.
I don't blanch it ... lazy me ...
I harvest the tender leaves inside. Remove the spines and keep only the middle stalks.
Cut in small pieces andI boiled. Dress with olive oile, salt and pepper. Yummy ... it tastes like artichokes.
Don't use the old leaves because they are bitter.

Mraider3,
EXCELLENT suggestion to use the hoop to warm the soil for the sweeties! I could actually start earlier than April to get them going and out of the way before my cole crop seedlings need to go in.

I'm being conservative and only growing 3 new heirloom toms this year: Sioux, Momotoro, and Bull's Heart.