Summer Gardens 2015 Part 4

JMC - Tell us more about your ground cherry. Is this one pineapple or ruby? I planted some last year and the taste was not what I had expected. Not all that good. I was disappointed, but am trying again this year with the pineapple. I think what I had last was ruby.

As for tomatillas - I seem to have a problem with them having some kind of worm in them. Anyone else know what I'm talking about? Sometimes they are perfect and sometimes they have this little hole and a worm???

im not sure what kind i have here as the seed was a bonus for buying a blueberry bush and the nursery company was not specific about what kind. although i will let it sit for a while more before eating because something i read says that even after harvest to let them sit for a week to fully ensure ripeness.

Tried eating one of the Blue Beauty tomatoes today (the pink ones ive been posting with the purple shoulders). I have to say they are actually kind of bland, a bit disappointing

This message was edited Jul 20, 2015 3:48 PM

I've never heard of a Ground Cherry called Ruby. I've heard of Pineapple and Aunt Molly.

jmc-I'm guessing your seeds where labeled as tomatillos, since that's what you thought they were. I've had the same issue...I grew out tomatillo seeds but they were Ground Cherries. I gt the seeds in a trade. I really liked them, I ate them straight out of the garden.

STEPHANIE,
You have GOT to post what you did, EXACTLY, lol!!!!!

CYTF,
VERY nice bells!

jmc1987,
So sorry about the blue tomatoes. They could be a really nice potted conversation starter?

WHAT IS A GROUND CHERRY???

Linda, all I did was add a handful of compost and mixed in some crushed up leaves, added a handful of tomato & pepper food and some earthworm castings at plant out. Then watered almost daily with 16" of rain for a month. (LOL!) During the rainy month, I sprinkled alfalfa pellets on my garden. I also made some alfalfa tea and applied that about a month ago. That's all I've done.

Anyone grow amaranth (for seed), besides me?

If my Bell peppers were that size I would grow them instead on sweet non bells. I've grown some Italian bells and sometimes they were decent size with decent yields but I gave up and grow other types now.

Stephanie,how many Bell pepper plants due you have?

We have 6 plants. Three red and 3 yellow.

Thanks, Steph & NicoleC!

Brendak654,
Check with drthor on the amaranth. I think she tried to grow it...

Amaranth didn't survive in my summer garden.
I am still harvesting many tomatoes and I made a lot of salsa last weekend and also ton of blackberries jam from the fruit I did freeze early in the season.
Squash are making a lot of male flowers and a few female ones, which they don't produce (even if I hand-pollinated them). I am harvesting daily male squash flowers to eat in salads.
I have a few eggplants from "Dusky" variety. The rest of eggplant plants are just in shock and I will look forward to a fall harvest (I hope)
Peppers are producing a lot and I used almost all of them in my salsa (no picture of them here).
Everything else is just slow growing and suffering with this heat !
Happy gardening

drthor - Sorry you did not have luck with Amaranth. As for the Amaranth - I like the really tall golden one. This is my third year and I'm still experimenting with it. The first year I had lots of seed (quite by accident - I was able to gather the seed). The second year, I harvested the seed heads and spread them out to dry and they molded. Now - this is the third year and I have nice seed heads. I just have to remember not to get in a hurry to harvest and hope the birds don't harvest it for me.

My tomatoes are not near as good as in a normal year. This not being normal - with all the extra rain. Though - I'm not complaining because if it was not raining, it would probably be a drought. Getting plenty tomatoes to eat, just not making juice or canning toms.

my eggplant has officially kicked the bucket on me, the leaves yellowed and it just gave up. (i think it was a massive rain spell we had a few weeks back, maybe gave it root rot, i also lost the Kentucky beefsteak plant to the excess rain.

The tomato plants that my grandmother gave us have started producing ripe fruits where mine are starting to slow down, she gave them to us a bit later than when i started my own, so this is going to keep the toms coming!

Happy Birthday, jmc!

I grow lots of amaranth, whether I want to or not. It sounds less yummy when you call it pigweed, tho.

The amaranth I have spoke of is right up there with quinoa. But then too, I have the other pigweed you are referring to.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPY BIRTHDAY!

Went out this morning expecting to pull out my cucumber plants. Instead, I found 2 perfect sized cukes and one more that'll be ready in a few days. Guess I'll be waiting to pull them out. Also found a few other things. Can't wait for this melon to be ready. Might be the only one we get this season. (Thank you for all the rain!)

I can hardly wait for my melons to be ready either, the watermelons seem to be taking so darned long, lol. One cantaloupe is nearly there, just waiting for the signiture scent before i snip it off the vine.

and also todays harvest photo. Im starting to get some tomato plants that have branches snapping from the weight of fruits developing near the top, i wonder if i could give the plants a good trim back and they would give me another round of fruits before fall gets here, some are already trying to re bloom

You can snip out the suckers that grow in the "Y" of where the branch meets the main stalk. As long as the temps stay consistent and you water them and your growing season is long enough, you will get a second harvest.

thanks for the advice there.

another note of advice i am asking for: My gray zucchini plants have been doing pretty decent, pollination could be better though. But my main problem is that every time there is even the slightest breeze, the whole plant flops over (ive checked for SVB, definitely none of that going on, its just very top heavy it seems). any ideas that i can use to help keep them upright?

oh and before i forget, here is todays harvest.

Also a flower arrangement made for mom from the flowers in my garden space

Wow, those flowers are great!

jmc1987, very nice.
I am envious of your cucumbers now. Mine are "cooked".
I am still harvesting tomatoes and yesterday I harvested as many peppers as I found in my garden to make salsa.
I made 2 batches of salsa and probably the last ones of the season. I think the tomatoes will stop to produce real soon.
This 2015 will be remember as a "glorious tomatoes season".
I harvested a few squashes too and I will make soup tomorrow.
Happy gardening !

and the cukes just keep coming, i can see why Stephanie likes growing "muncher" so much.

This year the tomatoes are doing some strange things, not long after harvest, they will develop brown rotted spots on them that will increase in size until the whole tomato turns to mush, if its not used soon. Me and mom have had to blanch and freeze 3 bags worth because of this going on, to keep from losing them. And its not just us, everyone we have talked to around here has had the same thing going on, definitely something wonky going on about this year i think.

Have you try to harvest your tomatoes as soon as they will turn color on the bottom and let them ripe in the kitchen?
Maybe this will help.
More salsa from my garden.

yep, the two that i harvested today are not fully colored up, on a funny note, it drives mom up a wall when i do not let a tomato fully ripen on the vine, she thinks the flavor profile will be crippled because of picking as soon as you see color, lol

drthor - Your salsa looks yummy - looks like you and your garden have been very productive.

I don't know how I ended up with a packet of onion seeds. I have never planted onion seeds and expected anything from them. Usually I either plant sets or slips. Well - Hats off to the onion seed. That packet of seed that I had I planted in one of those large half wiskey barrels on my back stoop probably late April. Low and behold I have the nicest green onions in the whiskey barrel.. I just harvested 3 of them for lunch and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'll definitely do that again.

Since we have had more than adequate rain - any suggestions for some kind of a fall crop that could be planted now or a little later, that would thrive in all this moisture?

Keep gardening - it's rewarding...............

well here are my autumn garden plans, give or take, some ideas here may or may not be stable, lol. The sweet potato vines in the smaller bed do not seem intent on rooting their vines to the ground as they grow along, so they could be pushed aside to make room for greens.

This autumns crop will (hopefully) include:

Lettuce, beets, Cauliflower, radish, kale, carrots, turnips, and perpetual spinach (a type of chard)

Personally, I don't think it hurts the flavor much if at all when you color a tomato up for a few days off the vine. Just had one for lunch that I picked a couple of days early and it was delicious.

I always plant onion seeds close together in a little plastic container in Jan or Feb. You can do the winter sowing thing or even in the house. I have a greenhouse, so do it there. The temps. get down in there in cold weather, but it doesn't seem to hurt them. Then, as soon as you can, plant them out in the garden. Another thing I do, is when the grass like tops are getting tall, I trim them. The little bulb gets bigger then. I love onions grown in the garden. Any kind. This year I am growing large shallots. Leeks I do the same way, but didn't grow them this year. I think I am going to miss them and my long storage onions. Love Walla Wallas too, but they are quite plentiful around here and, of course, they are not keepers.
I have 3 nice brussels sprouts coming along for fall and some broccoli, too. I need to put in some other things, but space is limited with my huge squash vines. Thinking of taking out one of the zucs. It is just huge.

Nice plans, jmc. How do you do that? The little images, I mean?

oh, i just take photos on google search of the plants that i want and incorporate them into my plan photos.

decided to try an experiment, i took some dill seed and mustard seed out of a bottle of pickling spice that we bought a couple of weeks back, just to see if they would grow or not, well i got my answer as far as the mustard, still would have to wait a week or so to see if the dill would do anything, although i know its probably too late in the season to even be thinking about dill, just something i wanted to try for the fun of it, lol

jmc - I like your garden plans - that is very interesting. I'm growing sweet potatoes, too. Three or four different kinds. Lots-lots of vines going everywhere. Not sure what sign of the moon I planted mine......maybe it was the vine sign.

beebonnet - Thanks for the onion seed info. I may take some of your advise especially for seeding earlier and for cutting the tall tops off a tad.

We just received another inch and a half of rain. That matches the inch and a half we received Sunday morn. I think that is over 15 inches for the month of July. Lots of moisture! Way more than the norm.

I'm growing sweeties, too!

Planted sometime in April? In any case, they need to be out by mid-October, when my cole crops will need the space!

I'm growing a 4x8' bed of Vardaman's.

My vegetable garden is doing great this year.Lots of pole beans , Steak tomatoes and Roma
.

found some cauliflower and carrot seed on my outing today, a carrot variety that caught my interest called "2x4 Giant", supposedly they can get as big as sweet potatoes or even bigger. Couldnt find a DG plant files link for it though.

I wish I could grow sweet potatoes here. We just love them and pay a hefty price for them in the market. We can't do melons or sweet potatoes. Regular potatoes grow very well, though.

Would really like to know if 2x4 giant carrot is a good one. I alway though the skinny ones were sweeter...don't know. The other thing...you must really have to space them out in the row. You sure wouldn't have to use many for dinner.

Send some rain our way, Brenda. We haven't had rain since early June and then it wasn't much.Some parts of OR have had rain recently but it missed us. Darn.

Why can't you do melons or sweet potatoes, beebonnet? I would think I'd be plenty warm enough in a 9a?