Rita,
I have Pot Blacks & Listada de Gandias growing in the RB. I have Hansels & Gretels growing in 5-gallon buckets, and Black Beauty growing in the Earthbox...
I want one more good harvest to make up some batches of Spicy Asian Eggplant for the freezer.
Summer Veggie Gardens Pt 2 & Beginning Fall Gardening (Pt 1)
Thanks Gymgirl. Those eggplants all sound good to me! Next year I want to get Hansel as well as bring back Gretal which I am growing this year.
Tomato taste challenge!
4 tomatoes competed. All four varieties new to me this year.
Jet Star
Big Beef
Supersonic
Rutgers
None compared to my three favorites from last year which are Big Boy, Better Boy and Beefmaster. So those favorites from last year not about to be knocked off the top of the list.
Favorite of the four, Rutgers with a very nice taste. Worse Jet Star which I would rather not be eating. Supersonic came in second and Big Beef third. Right now I am questioning if any of these will be brought back next season. The jury is still out as there are a lot of tomatoes still to be eaten. I usually do my taste challenges and then a while later do it again to check taste. Just to be sure.
We like Rutgers as well. I had horrible germination with Rutgers this year and ended up with only 1 little plant, but it's produced well.
I know I like Rutgers , but is has been years since I have grown any that grew well , it use to where I use to live ,,
Broad Ripple currant ( a naturalized , better producing Burgess Lemon I am about sure it is )
Belle Starr Burst of tomatoes and the plant is toast .. real good for what it is
Romanesco (pantano) Few but delightful( still producing not final )
Juane Flamme is good but came in last according to all here .. One good little producer over a long season this is ..
forgot;Burgess Mammoth Wonder , sour after taste , acid Tomato these fellows are definitely your big greasy Hamburger Tomato ...lol
This message was edited Aug 5, 2013 7:05 PM
My Pantano Romanesco was very prolific and I loved the flavor!
I have had three and casualty so far,, there is still a half dozen green and lots of blooms with about two months to go .. The plant is 8ft tall now and still growing
First three pics are the Romanesco going to and over the top of an 8ft fence , row housing kind of messes up the mood of the pic ..lol
The last two are juanne flamme still at and a while
So,
Who's started their fall/winter seed list? I'm sowing Wave #1 this weekend.
Here's my proposed schedule and planting list:
2013-2014 COLE CROP TIMELINE
8/10/13 Sow; 9/14/13 Harden off; 9/21/13 Plant out – 12/7/13 Buttons*?
9/14/13 Sow; 9/19/13 Harden off; 10/26/13 Plant out – 01/11/14 Buttons*?
10/12/13 Sow; 11/16/13 Harden off; 11/23/13 Plant out – 02/08/14 Buttons*?
11/09/13 Sow; 12/14/13 Harden off; 12/21/13 Plant out – 03/08/14 Buttons*?
(*Expect Broccoli and Cauliflower buttons/heads ~ 120 days from sowing seeds)
2014 TOMATO TIMELINE
12/21/13 Sow Longest season Seeds; 2/8/14 Harden off; 2/15/14 Plant out
01/04/14 Sow Medium season Seeds; 2/22/14 Harden off/ 03/01/14 Plant out
2014 GROWING LIST (Tentative)
From The Sustainable Seeds Company
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
Early Round Dutch Cabbage
Brunswick Cabbage
Early Wonder Beets
Detroit Dark Red Beets
Snowball Y Improved Cauliflower
Snow Crown Cauliflower
Texas 1015Y Onion Seeds
Red Creole Onion Seeds
Little Marvel Peas
Wando Peas
From Johnny's Select Seeds Company
Waltham Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Arcadia Broccoli
Green Magic Broccoli
Fava Beans
Space Spinach
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach?
Da Cheong Chae-Mini Asian Pac Choi
Seven Top Turnips
Carrots (various varieties, in SmartPots)
Romaine Lettuce
Mustard & Collard greens (sowing seeds every 4 weeks)
Kale
Linda
Seeds in the ground already:
Carrot "Danvers 126"
Carrot "Littlefinger"
Peas "Amish Snap"
Broccoli "Romanesco"
Broccoli "Early Green"
Cabbage "Brunswick"
Cabbage "Early Jersey Wakefield"
Beets "Bulls Blood"
Going in soon:
Beets "Cylindra"
Lettuce... dunno, I have a whole bunch of tiny seed packets from trades. I'll probably mix them up.
Spinach "America"
As soon as I have space:
Turnips "Hakeuri"
Radish "Saxa II"
Radish "Cherry Belle"
NicoleC,
When's your average first frost date? Ours is anywhere from 11/7 to 12/7.
Are your nights cooling off already? We still have nights in the mid- to high-80s, and days this week will be triple digits...
Wow to Nicole and Gymgirl both. You have such long lists of fall crops. I don't do much for fall, my favorite to do for a fall crop is peas and those are up.
Lots of tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden.
Bean towers making beans!
Quote from Gymgirl :
NicoleC,
When's your average first frost date? Ours is anywhere from 11/7 to 12/7.
Are your nights cooling off already? We still have nights in the mid- to high-80s, and days this week will be triple digits...
This year we've been having cool nights much of the time (60s!), but mostly they are in the low 70's. Normally it's not that cool. Daytimes, we've only had a few days over 90 and none over 100. It's wacky weather this year.
Average first frost date is Oct 21-31. Problem is, we don't really get fall. It's usually how right up until we get a two week fall, then we're into winter. Many years the fall crops just burn up, but if you don't plant this early they won't mature. I'm hoping this year we'll actually get a nice fall.
But hey, it's raining outside again. And here I was worried because we were only 12" over normal.
That IS crazy weather, LOL!
I'm praying we have a colder winter, 'cause it was so warm last season, the cabbages wouldn't even make tight heads.
And, the bugs this spring weren't controlled well by a killing frost, so we need some freezes this winter.
Plus, planting out cole crop seedlings in the heat makes them stress out with the roller coaster temps...
Well this a bit of a thread stray and while I did get some fall mustard greens planted today , How about this ; this is a folklore but :
Fall is here early or coming early according to this '
Autumn Clematis , bloom today ...
Yesterday I had fireflies in my yard... In *August*!
Spring was so late I was a little worried we might have a year without a summer, but we got plenty of sun if not normal temps. I'm inclined at this point to think fall will arrive early in the southeast.
I hope fall is warm around here and lasts late.
Rita, I feel cooler just looking at your pictures!
It has actually been much cooler than normal around here these past few days.
Been much cooler here as well. Had another big rain come through tonight. feels like late September lately...havent been to the pool in 10 days.
We've had such a pleasant summer, I've not had to use the air conditioner.
Our June & July were great! Few 100º days, lots of rain, clouds, cooler nights. Then August arrived with a vengeance! I think it's been over 100º every day! Yesterday it was something like 108º!! That's just crazy!
Supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday. My foundation is shifting and I need the moisture...
Spagetti Squash, eggplants, yellow squash.
Cucumbers.
Tomatoes.
Melon.
Tomatoes, a spagetti squash, eggplants.
Wow!
A real melon you grew yourself!
Wow!
I've been picking watermelons too. I had an Ali Baba which was large and delicious, and a small volunteer that was probably a Blacktail Mountain, also very tasty. My lemon squash are producing in spite of squash bugs, although I think I have to pick them a little smaller because the seeds get quite big if I don't. Loads of tomatoes, and the Dixie butter beans are bearing. Blackberries are plentiful this year as well.
Sugar Cube melons from Burpee. Very sweet and very desease resistant. I will be planting them again next year.
My colorful beans that are not green. Yellow ones, well have a green tint but they get yellower. And purple ones. When they are smaller you can see how they are changing from green to purple.
I grew purple beans this year and they were very tasty!
AS the previous was posted , I was sitting here eating Romano Bush beans steamed in butter from the garden .
I am the only one here who likes them ,,oh goody ..
Old Kentucky Wonder for dry beans this year .. I am not the only one here who enjoys Ham & Beans ,, so I won't get all those to myself ,, lol
We prefer Blue Lake beans to KY Wonders. I'm not sure why, but the KY Wonders are flatter and didn't do well for us. We've had great success with Blue Lake.
I love Fortex; I'm going back to those next year, trellises and all.
I usually grow Blue Lake and have for years. Have some in this year also.
My beans in the picture are two varieties of French Fillet Pole beans. A yellow variety that barely gets yellow before I pick and eat them (as they tatse so good) and the purple variety. They start out green and on some of the smaller beans you can see they are partially purple until they color up.
Never tried Fortex. My favorite beans are my yard longs. Love those beans. Sweet and tender and tasty.
Picked tomatoes again.
Wow, Rita,
You're killing it!
I have never had so many tomatoes as this year.
Today's harvest basket contained several tomatoes and 2 Hill Country Red okra pods. Due to the high heat we've been having, my tomatoes are not as large as they were in early to mid July when our temps were about 10º cooler and overnight temps were in the 70s. However, I'll take any size tomato in August after a week of over 100º temps!
This morning, I also planted some stuff for fall. Planted 3 different varieties of cucumbers, National Pickling, Muncher, and Ashley. I've never grown any of these so it'll be a test! We also planted some watermelon. I've missed our fresh grown watermelons this summer. Tomorrow, I plan on planting some Blue Lake pole beans and maybe broccoli.
Stephanie, harvest looks good.
My okra is a bust so far I have only gotten four pods.
Oh and be sure and report back on the muncher cucumbers. I have seeds of muncher I can use next spring so want to know if they are any good.