Author Topic: A couple of questions for the gardeners out there . . . (Read 13970 times)

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #25 on:** July 15, 2011, 09:40:51 AM »

My zukes, cukes, and squash (you can figure that out on your own) are doing nicely. I've got four zukes in the 12" range, which I'll pick tomorrow. (Gina, PM me.

) A couple of cukes ready. The squash are smallish and will continue to grow. The damned squirrels are continuing to hit the tomatoes. I'll fix their asses today, and without shooting them. The potatoes . . . I know that they're coming along. The Yukon Gold plants are about 8" to 10" shorter than the Russett Banana plants. I'm looking forward to the potatoes.

At the apartment, the Cherokee Purple tomato plants have 13 to 15 tomatoes each. One of the big tomatoes on one of those plants had a racquetball-sized black patch on the bottom of the thing, and it felt softer than the rest of the tomato. I picked the tomato off and tossed it. The Red Beefsteak has very small tomatoes on it. Those three plants are in Topsy-Turvy planters, and they get a lot of sun. The small bush bean plants have a fair number of beans on them. The Iceberg "stalks" (they never formed heads!) have yielded a lot of lettuce. I wish I could say the same about the broccoli and radishes . . . but there's still time yet.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #26 on:** July 25, 2011, 02:25:52 PM »

I've been harvesting a lot of zucchinis and summer squash over the last couple of days. Also, a lot of small cucumbers. The young elementary-school teacher one floor below me has told me that she'd eat whatever vegetables I gave her. (I did offer--at least the squash.) We've also got a box set up inside the church for donations from the gardens, to go to local food pantries. There's tomatoes coming in spades, too.

bijou · « **Reply #27 on:** July 25, 2011, 02:57:10 PM »

Congrats. The weird weather here has delayed everything, I wouldn't be harvesting stuff yet but I can tell it'll be a very late harvest. Just hope the autumn is good.

IassaFTots · « **Reply #28 on:** July 25, 2011, 04:23:11 PM »

Quote from: bijou on July 25, 2011, 02:57:10 PM

Congrats. The weird weather here has delayed everything, I wouldn't be harvesting stuff yet but I can tell it'll be a very late harvest. Just hope the autumn is good.

Drought and heat has dried up everything around here. I am trying to keep my garden alive, but it isn't happy.

Odin's Hand · « **Reply #29 on:** July 25, 2011, 04:26:09 PM »

Quote from: IassaFTots on July 25, 2011, 04:23:11 PM

Drought and heat has dried up everything around here. I am trying to keep my garden alive, but it isn't happy.

Same here. About all I'm getting now is collards and the occasional peppers. Tomatoes and watermelons have been severely stunted due to lack of rainfall/oppressive heat.

IassaFTots · « **Reply #30 on:** July 25, 2011, 04:55:41 PM »

Quote from: Odin's Hand on July 25, 2011, 04:26:09 PM

Same here. About all I'm getting now is collards and the occasional peppers. Tomatoes and watermelons have been severely stunted due to lack of rainfall/oppressive heat.

I had a lot of cucumbers in the beginning, now they start out, and by the time they are about the size of a gherkin, they are yellow and brown, and shrivel away.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #31 on:** July 26, 2011, 04:38:58 AM »

Last evening, after I posted, I managed to get two medium-sized and one large zucchini into the donations box, along with one summer squash. There's one medium zucchini and one summer squash in the fridge now, waiting for that teacher to come up and claim them. I've got to go out on the road today (Batavia, in between Buffalo and Rochester), and I've got someone who is going to water things. I figure that I'll have squash and zukes ready by Wednesday afternoon, when I come home.

JohnnyReb · « **Reply #32 on:** July 26, 2011, 08:00:43 AM »

Draught and heat has been murder on my garden. Been eating a lot of fresh stuff as it comes out of the garden and puttin up what the extra. I've put up a few quarts of peas, 3 quarts of lima beans, a few quarts of squash and orka. That's from the upper garden.

I have watered the lower garden several times but the heat and draught has worked on it too. Between the worms, 'coons and dry heat, I only put up a 120+ ears of corn. The squash, orka, peas, beans, tomatoes in it look great, beans, and peas just now blooming. The string beans look great and have been blooming like crazy for a good while now but haven't put on a single bean. There's something wrong with the string beans. I wonder if they have to have honey bees to pollinate? If so, I'm screwed. I've seen only 2 honey bees all summer.

I've picked and shelled some lima beans already this morning. Gathered some squash and okra this morning, cut up enough for supper tonight and put up the rest. Going to thaw out a few ears of the corn to cook, cook the beans, squash and okra, cut up some tomatoes and WA-LA it's supper time.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #33 on:** August 06, 2011, 09:33:34 AM »

Most of the zukes I've put into the donations box have been smallish--the better to do something with. If they get big and fat, they tend to get filled with seeds, and at that point, they're good only for breads. I've started to donate the "pickling-sized" cukes. A fair amount of squash, too. The crows are really playing havoc with the tomatoes, but there's a lot they can't get to.

A neighbor in a nearby building told me that her mother has a recipe for fried zukes in cinnamon and brown sugar, which she says is great. I told her that I want that recipe.

CG6468 · « **Reply #34 on:** August 06, 2011, 09:36:38 AM »

A neighbor cuts zukes in half, scoops out the seeds, etc, and refills them with pizza sauce, pepperoni, sausage, whatever, and bakes them.

Odin's Hand · « **Reply #35 on:** August 06, 2011, 09:36:57 AM »

Got a couple of bushels of crowder peas sent up here to me from East Texas. I am in hog heaven that'll I'll have peas 'til next year now.

JohnnyReb · « **Reply #36 on:** August 06, 2011, 09:45:43 AM »

Quote from: Odin's Hand on August 06, 2011, 09:36:57 AM

Got a couple of bushels of crowder peas sent up here to me from East Texas. I am in hog heaven that'll I'll have peas 'til next year now.

I got to pick peas today. Purple peas and crowder peas. We had some rain the last 2 weeks and the vines have run everywhere until there is no room between the rows for me and my bucket. The runners have even speard over into and run up my head high okra plants. From powder dry to soupy wet....oh well, that's climate change for you.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #37 on:** August 13, 2011, 07:39:02 AM »

I just got back from over there. I planted two good-density rows of salad greens way back when, and since they hadn't tasted good to the local deer population, I was a tad leery about picking them . . . I was wrong (they taste pretty good). I got four "stalks" of the greens, and there's enough salad leaves from those four stalks to last until Monday at the least. I did lose a cuke plant. My Yukon Gold potato plants are dying off, so the potatoes underneath should be ready soon. The Russett Banana plants are still going strong. My tomatoes there haven't been turning red, and something walked through the area last night, toppling a few branches of plants. But, I've got a lot of stuff. Still a few zukes coming, and squash coming.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #38 on:** September 03, 2011, 02:50:50 PM »

An update . . . the tomatoes are on the cusp.

I'm finding out just how many tomatoes will come off of 45-50 plants.

Wineslob · « **Reply #39 on:** September 08, 2011, 05:02:35 PM »

You people with full sun.....................................suck.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #40 on:** September 10, 2011, 08:13:06 AM »

Quote from: chris_ on September 08, 2011, 05:02:35 PM

You people with full sun.....................................suck.

I agree. We have had a lot of rain, and the tomatoes are splitting on the vines.

JohnnyReb · « **Reply #41 on:** September 10, 2011, 08:24:51 AM »

Today I plow the lima beans under and sow turnip greens...WHY? I don't know. I don't even like turnips or the greens. I just want one mess of turnip greens to remind me why I don't like them.....and why do southerns refer to everything as a "Mess of _________." A mess of peas, a mess of beans, a mess of turnip greens....is a "mess" some form of ancient measurement? How many pounds, ounces, cups does a "mess" compare to? Can one have 1, 2, or 3 "messes" of peas in a pot at the same time? Enquiring minds want to know....before I go and make this mess.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #42 on:** September 12, 2011, 12:48:44 PM »

Saturday, I took The Heiress to the gardens. I was wading through the watermelon plants, and I picked one up . . . and put my hand into it. One could say that I left them in the garden a tad too long. Tonight I'm going to go over there and see if I can put whatever ones I can salvage into the donations box. This should be interesting.

Odin's Hand · « **Reply #43 on:** September 12, 2011, 09:35:53 PM »

Quote from: BlueStateSaint on September 12, 2011, 12:48:44 PM

Saturday, I took The Heiress to the gardens. I was wading through the watermelon plants, and I picked one up . . . and put my hand into it. One could say that I left them in the garden a tad too long. Tonight I'm going to go over there and see if I can put whatever ones I can salvage into the donations box. This should be interesting.

Oh yeah, man, you gotta check those periodically for ripeness before you think they max out on mass. You didn't know that?

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #44 on:** September 13, 2011, 07:12:06 AM »

Quote from: Odin's Hand on September 12, 2011, 09:35:53 PM

Oh yeah, man, you gotta check those periodically for ripeness before you think they max out on mass. You didn't know that?

I do now!

JohnnyReb · « **Reply #45 on:** September 13, 2011, 07:26:59 AM »

Quote from: Odin's Hand on September 12, 2011, 09:35:53 PM

Oh yeah, man, you gotta check those periodically for ripeness before you think they max out on mass. You didn't know that?

As a kid, I could thump a watermelon and tell you exactly how ripe it was...I couldn't do that now to save my butt.

IassaFTots · « **Reply #46 on:** September 13, 2011, 07:41:20 AM »

Quote from: JohnnyReb on September 13, 2011, 07:26:59 AM

As a kid, I could thump a watermelon and tell you exactly how ripe it was...I couldn't do that now to save my butt.

I dunno Johnny. If you thumped it and your hand went into it, I bet you would know it is overripe.

Odin's Hand · « **Reply #47 on:** September 13, 2011, 08:37:18 AM »

Quote from: JohnnyReb on September 13, 2011, 07:26:59 AM

As a kid, I could thump a watermelon and tell you exactly how ripe it was...I couldn't do that now to save my butt.

Yep, gotta get that "holla" sound out of it.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #48 on:** September 13, 2011, 09:45:37 AM »

Quote from: Odin's Hand on September 13, 2011, 08:37:18 AM

Yep, gotta get that "holla" sound out of it.

Picked a couple of 'em last night that had that thump.

BlueStateSaint · « **Reply #49 on:** September 24, 2011, 04:48:36 PM »

Just about everything that can be harvested, has been harvested. I've got a few tomatoes that still have to go, but that's about it. I dug up the four hills of Russett Banana potatoes yesterday. I figure that I got about 20 to 25 pounds of them out of the four seed potatoes I started with. They're pretty small; but there's a lot of them. And they seem pretty good.

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Author Topic: A couple of questions for the gardeners out there . . . (Read 13970 times)