Strawbale Gardening: General Discussions - Chapter 23

Yeah, Kent- you've been missed! How come the squash, zucchinis and cukes have all been pulled out? My crazy zucchini plant is like a FACTORY!! I took 3 large ones tonight, and have gotten 5 previously, and thee are at least 6 decent sized ones still on the plant! It's insane! Today I got lettuce, 3 zucchinis and basil and green and waxed beans. Really been enjoying just cooking whatever I harvest each day, adding some herbs, a little chicken, sausage or black beans, sauteed onions, and maybe some cheese. Yum!

suz , i want to eat dinner at your house tonight . yo bud , sally

I can't say that I had good luck with my bale gardening this year. Never did get bean seed to germinate. My one tomato was growing pretty good but one day!!! when I wasn't watching closely enough a tomato worm found it and ate half before I noticed . My guinea fowl guy liked the horn worm anyway.

Donna

I have eight bales, with 2 tomato plants per bale. There must be hundreds of green tomatoes growing and none are the tiny grape or cherry tomatoes. I'll be very busy soon!

Ditto for me Darius. Been making pickles once a week for three weeks and now getting ready for the maters to come on.

Doug

Donna; My bales aren't doing very well either. The Tallest tomato there is only 15". I've been giving them MG but they just seem to be content just being short. They have started blooming though. I have 5 maters on the counter, for lunch right now from my other plants. Think I need to get some "tea" for the little guys.
With about 50 others though I think I'll have enough tomatoes for canning anyway.
I need to get out and pick a mess of beans. I know there will be enough to freeze some as with the rain we have had the row will be loaded. I have had one pepper from the Cal wonder plants. But all the rest only have little BB sized peppers just starting to form.
This year just wasn't a good spring to get things going. Just checked my cucumbers, they are just starting to form little ones but only saw one that was about an inch long and about the size of a lead pencil.
I have some sweet corn that needs about another 3 - 4 days and we can have a real treat. We will have a complete meal straight from the garden. It may sound like ( over kill ) but we have been waiting for the day we could have corn on the cob, Green beans and onions, and tomatoes all at the same meal. Kind of go vegetarian for at least one meal, and have it all come from the garden. LOL
Russ

Hey Doug; Now I am getting jealous. Oh well I spent a big part of one day pitting cherries, so now I'm making jelly and freezing some for winter so I can have some cherry pie, later.
Russ

Yum, Russ! I wonder about my good production this year... I know in general we have good and bad years for crops, but did I affect it? This year I applied Mighty Plant at 1 week intervals about 3 times when the plants were still very small. http://www.edenbio.com/garden/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=36

oh Russ, I am so jealous!...sour cherries don't grow down here & cherry pie is my fav.

foggy

Thanks darius. That don't sound bad, I may have to try some. Now may be too late for this year, as what isn't close now may not make it before frost any way.
I have some foliar spray that I really haven't noticed much difference between where I used it and where I have done nothing more than tilling under some horse stuff and last years mulch. So I am thinking that wasn't such a bargain of buying it even at the end of season bargain prices.
I'll get a good harvest of the main stuff from the garden. Just not everything.
My sweet potatoes look great and I think I should get a " bunch". Not trying to count chicks before they hatch but I expect about 2 or 3 bushels.
Think I could live on just tomatoes, green beans, sweet corn and of course sweet potatoes. LOL
Russ

Foggy; I wish the lady could remember what kind they are. All she could remember is that they were supposed to be sweet. They were the first year that it had fruit but ever since they have been sour. I may even go out this fall and next spring and spray it, as it is a rather large tree and it was loaded with cherries.
She said nobody liked them. Shucks I even went out and picked about a gallon and a half of Choke Cherries. Now that is some real jelly. Last year I made some and boiled it a little long. So I boiled it a little longer and made hard candy. That is delishious. It went over well at Christmas but I saved some just for my sweet tooth. LOL
Russ

Russ, I didn't grow my cukes in bales this year but next year it's a definite. They spread so much all over the garden that I think I will put them in bales surrounded by about six feet of fence for them to crawl all over. I did put up a 40" fence stretched between two
T-posts over the row but they swallowed that and then took off everywhere. I have 20 quarts of dills done and may do a few more before I pull the vines up. The squash are about petered out too. Mater's are just now starting to turn. It's really been a slow year for them since we had such a cool Spring and early Summer. Peppers in the bales just haven't impressed me much. Very slow growing.

Doug

Doug; Mine are not in bales either, I had all I could do to get in what I did and with the bales not ready soon enough, I just planted my cukes in the ground and mulched around them. Then I stuck in some steel posts and an old piece of fencing. Of course I have had to keep at tying them up as they just don't seem to want to climb. But I have always had to help them climb. I used to let them run all over but really like them on a trellis of sorts much better.
I don't know if you raise sweet potatoes but I always had to allow a lot of room for them. This year I ordered some vardaman, a bush type. Each plant is only about 36" diameter. I can still see the rows, and open space between them. I am hopeful of getting as big a yield from them as I did with the centennials. Probably only need about half the space.
Here is cukes on fence.
Russ

I must say, yours look much better behaved than mine. What type? Mine are Boston Picklers. Mine did climb by themselves I just had to train the side wanderers back to the fence. It just kept growing and growing though and finally there was no fence left! They attached themselves to one of my heirloom tomato plants and when I was picking them the other night I saw a HUGE one hanging below the tomato plant that I had missed. Don't know how I missed that baby, it was probably 11-12" long 3-4" in diameter and already yellow! I don't know how many pounds I've picked so far but I guess around 45-50 lbs. If I make any more pickles I may not have to grow any next year. Although I think my darling wife will make sure they are all gone by next summer!

Doug

OH Darius!! I could kick myself. I have a lot of Mighty Plant and have never used it. I have been using 20-20-20 and I have beautiful plants but not very many tomatoes. I just went out and put Bloom Plus on them, a drench, 10-54-10. I wonder if, since Mighty Plant is a folier spray, if it would be too much????

Jeanette

I doubt it. I sprayed the foliage and then gave the roots a good drink, per their instructions. Mighty Plant is 18-18-18 but what I think is important about it is the micronutrients in it, plus the harpin technology stuff.

OK Darius, you've talked me into it. Tomorrow morning before the sun gets on them I will spray them. Is there a way to use the Mighty Plant in a hose end sprayer or do you have to use the spray bottle?

Jeanette

Doug I planted straight 8 this year. I think they have a little more growing yet before they are done. I've usually had blooms still coming on at frost time. which could come any time after the middle of September. But has waited as late as November. Our frost dates aren't very predictable. I would like to have a hoop house over the melons and some of the tomatoes, for the early frosts. Just to be able to extend the season a little. Have it open at the top, then close it when the temps start dipping down.
Russ

Doug, was that a cucumber you are talking about that you found that big? Wow, sounds like a squash! Sure your zuchinnis didn't get in there? Was it hollow? Or did you keep it?

Jeanette

Jeanette... I only have the small packets which make a gallon... and no hose-end sprayer to see how it would work. So, I "dunno"...

No zuchini's for me Jeanette. I have crook neck summer squash growing. Yes it a was a pickling cuke that I somehow missed.

Doug

I grew my potatoes in the still-decomposing straw bales from last year. I fluffed up the old straw from one row of bales, put the seed potatoes on top, and added the fluffed straw from the second row of bales. After the plants grew about a foot tall, I added more old decomposing straw.

Today I noticed the plants were falling over, which could allow some potatoes to be exposed to light as the stalks pulled away. So, I pulled the first four plants (6 more to go) and harvested 30 pounds of Yukon Golds which overflowed a half-bushel basket. I figure my whole 15 foot row will yield 75 pounds, perhaps more.

Some are bigger than my fist (maybe 1/4), most are the size I like... just a bit smaller than my fist but not little like new potatoes. I do have a few small ones, maybe 8-10 which will be part of dinner tonight. Wish I had peas to pick today.

You bet I will use this no-till method again... and what a great thing to do with the old straw! NOW it will get composted.

Beautiful Darius!!! Great.

Jeanette

Almost forgot... Happy Birthday, Kent!!

darius: thanks!

It's been a long day on 2nd shift and I have about 100 coming by tomorrow afternoon for a combo church-wide picnic/b-day bash.

Nice spuds, too!

me too kent , H B !! sally

Just about missed it Kent; HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Enjoy your day.
Russ

Thanks, Sally and Russ, as I told another DG'er I'm now starting reverse birthdays. Next year I'll be 49 again! then 48, etc. :-)

Cool Kent!! I love that. Let's see if I started doing that 10 years ago, what would that make me now? I am going to have to get out my calculator. LOL

Have a nice party. Happy Birthday.

Jeanette

Hey Kent; is that all the way back to the beginning then start over???? ROFL
I'm almost there. I rather like 39 and HOLDING.
Russ

I don't know Russ, 39 means that I would have to be working. And holding means that I would never retire. I retired at 55 so, if I had good health, I would go for that. My, aren't we dreamers tho? LOL

Jeanette

Hmmmmmmmm, Maybe it would depend what you were holding, Blond, Brunette, Red Head. LOL

Knew a guy who always said when his wife turned 40 he would trade her in on 2-20s. Think she had the last laugh though. As her response was; don't know why, your not even wired for 1-10.

I guess she thought he was slow, LOL!

russ , your better half is a gonna whup up on you. sally

Ouuuuuu I can feel the lumps now.
We'er way too close to the 50 year mark, to put lumps on one another.
Was just trying to get a snicker from Jeanette. LOL
Russ

Russ, you got a snicker from me and a lump from Barb!! Ouch! even I felt that one. LOL

Jeanette

Since this is my favorite forum and you all feel like friends I wanted you to take a look at my stroll around the yard yesterday. I haunt the Shady Gardens forum too so that's where it was posted. I will post some pics of the current strawbale growth later today.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/882454/

Doug

My, my- we all must be VERY busy in our gardens! Hope you're enjoying great abundance- let's see some pictures!

xox Suz

I do believe we all went to the Shady Gardens link and looked at Doug's pictures there Suz. I think I even saw some posts from you over there.

This is a busy time of year and you will find that in the winter you will get even less posts when nobody is out there gardening but the Southerners. They are lucky and get two plantings each year.

Guess we all need to scurry down south.

Jeanette

UMmmm- - - -Yesterday picked a bucket of corn, a bunch of tomatoes, some cucumbers and onions. And made a zucchini pie. Took that down to Gary and Tami's He put steak burgers and Brats on a grill, and added macaroni salad, some potato salad, and cooked up the corn for every one. We all were full nearly to the point of, did I really eat that much???? He He He; and he did think that zucchini pie was APPLE !!!!!!
So I guess I was busy too (*-*)
Russ