Author Topic: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022  (Read 39394 times)

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #250 on: July 31, 2022, 12:27:24 PM »
Rain please rain...every thing is so dry here.

Harvest is happening but some things are so sad like squash.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #251 on: August 02, 2022, 07:50:21 AM »
Back at the cabin once more. The Rubarb has grown. I harvested some more small carrots and 1 radish. There were even some tiny leaves on the kale plants, already partly eaten by something, but still edible for us. Thrrefore I harvested them. We also ate some young leaves of the celereac plant.
I harvested thyme and mint and some edible flowers for dinner.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2022, 01:49:45 AM by Linea_Norway »

GardenBaker

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #252 on: August 09, 2022, 02:08:51 PM »
Cleaned up the summer garden today. A lot of the plants have stopped producing because of the heat. Will wait for cooler months to start the fall plants like lettuce, radishes and broccoli.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #253 on: August 09, 2022, 06:44:28 PM »
So many tomatoes!

I continue to be amazed at how productive broccoli is - I planted a 6 pack of starts and we’ve had broccoli every week since mid June.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #254 on: August 10, 2022, 02:30:26 AM »
Report from the home potting garden.

I harvested 3 pots of potatoes. Some were nicely sized, others were still really small babies. My plants had collapsed sideways, maybe because of the draught during my summer vacation. One pot still has green leaves, although the stem hangs sideways. I will leaves that longer. My potatoes are nice, without deep pits. I harvested about 5 x what I planted. I bought virus free planting potatoes that cost about 5 x the price of shop potatoes. So these are expensive potatoes. But next year I may use my own potatoes for planting.

I also harvested my garlics. They have been standing with 2 garlics in one medium sized pot. That is pretty small. The ones with the biggest buld look medium size, the smallest one are pretty small. They have only 4 cloves each, so if I want 8 garlics next year, I will have to use 2 whole garlics for that. During the summer I cut off the flower stilk early, so save energy for the plant. But that means I didn't get seeds that I could have used. Maybe I can get some seeds for free/cheap from other people. From seed it takes 2 years to grow garlic. During early summer, I put some normal garlic cloves in the pepper pots in the hope it would keep away whatever could harm my peppers. They have grow a thin, green stilk. Maybe I should just harvest the stilk at the end of season.

My brazilian starfish peppers have developed flowers and fresh leaves, very high up. I have decided to pull out all my tagetes flowers, as I suspect that such an enormous bunch of flowers takes away a lot of nutritions meant for the peppers and tomatoes. The Tagetes were pretty beautiful, but maybe planting them together with 1 flower per pepper in 1 pot is too much. I guess the season is very short for the starfish to finish making red peppers this summer, but I'll take it inside to finish. It needs to overwinter inside anyway. My cayenne peppers (from seed last year) just continue to produce new peppers all the time, even though the leaves are hanging.

My sweet bell peppers have lot of fruits per plant and also the size that you buy in the shop, just still green. I used seed from a pepper from the shop. My normal bell peppers also have fruits, but quite small. They had been standing in small pots for a long time. After I harvested the potatoes, I had some large pots left and repotted the pepper plants, so that they all have an 8 liter pot now. I also collected some additional free pots from the grocery store. These are the pot that they receive their flowers in and it is garbage for them.

I sowed new lettuce, the same 2 types that I had this summer, Attractie and Blushed butter oak. My earlier Attractie lettuce had become very high and got leathery leaves. It was about to flower. I also sowed radish and spinach. This should all produce before it starts freezing. This is all at home where I have Norwegian sone 3, which is very mild. At out cabin where I grow other stuff, it has occasionally been freezing at nigh every month this summer.

Our red currants are almost ripe. But these are only 6 young plants. We picked wild raspberries and blueberries to have some volume to make wine with the 3 different berries. In Swedish, the currants are called "wine berry" (vinbær).

My micro tomatoes are having lots of green tomatoes and a few turning orange. It is weird that not everything is ripe after a summer vacation, but maybe birds ate the ripe ones? Or there just wasn't enough sun. There definitely wasn't enough water, altough the neighbour watered once. My beef tomato developed some cases of slate rot (griffelråte), which is gets when it doesn't get enough calcium. I didn't give it additional calcium other than a bit of egg shell. Now I still have a bunch of green tomatoes left that don't have rot. So I hope they will ripen without getting it. If they don't turn red this season, I can lay them in fromt of the window until ripe.

My kaffir limes are doing well. They were standing indoors and have been without water for longer times. And they managed it well. They have grown bigger with more leaves, but are still pretty small plants. I repotted them from their tiny rescue pots to bigger pots. The leaves are a bit thicker than other plants, but not succulent. Maybe maybe therefore they tolerate draught.

I have 22 pots with either 1 or 3 basil plants, standing indoors in front of a window. They are producing so much basil, and they also tolerate draught for weeks. But the one right in front of the window was a bit damaged, leaves hanging. It recovered from it. I harvest them in a way that they split often and become a bit bushy.

Before the summer vacation I sowed 2 new micro tomato plants, called Tartufo. The idea was to let it finish the season indoors. I planted one in a pot of soil, the other in a homemade hydroponics system. I cut off a soda bottle, filled it with water and plant nutrition and found a small potting pot that fit just inside the bottle. Filled it with leca and planted the other tomato seedling in it. It was like this for a while, so I thought it had developed good roots. I even gave that hydroponics plant higher chances of survival without additional water. But it really died, maybe just dried out in the sun. The tomato in soil had grown to a healthy plant with thick stem.

gaja

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #255 on: August 10, 2022, 06:07:51 AM »
This summer has been a bust. May and June we spent all our time moving and renovating the house, and July has rained away. I think the perennial flowers we planted will do will next year, and I have a lot of small nut and pawpaw trees. So next year should look better. But it is a bit annoying that we haven't gotten a single squash or tomato yet and that the hundreds of corn stalks are all less than a foot high.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #256 on: September 03, 2022, 11:38:46 AM »
At the cabin:

Potatoes: The day after a couple of degrees below 0C, the plants were hanging. The day before the looked very healthy and green. I harvested the potatoes. Three plants that grew in very sandy material. They produced as well as the plants at home in pots of soil. Next year I will plant some again.

Herbs: I dugg up all rosmary to take home to overwinter in a warmer area, maybe even indoors. I cut down the thyme, sage and mint as end of season action. I built a new small raised bed for the mint and moved all mint plants over there, so that they won't take over the larger vegetable bed in time. The russian esdragon is still growing well, but a bit inaccessible with the celeriac growing in front of it and a fence on the other side. We have so many mint leaves now. I spent the whole werk making food and drinks with mint leaves.

Flowers: I removed all the marigold flowers, as they were very dominating and taking up sun. Put some in a vase inside. The dedicated flower bed that I planted a month ago is full of green, healthy plants, but no flowers yet. The flower packs had instructions that they could be sowed in June/July, but that is too late for a place with such a short summer.

Carrots: I picked some of my carrots. They were about 3-4 cm long and 1,5 cm wide. Not sure whether these were the summer carrots or winter carrots, but I think the short model winter carrots. The remaining carrots are long and extremely thin. Don't think they will grow into something useful this remaining season.

Celariac: I harvested one second celeriac. The root was about 5-6 cm diameter. Half of it was unedible, very full of fibers. There are many plants left that I have some hope might grow a bigger root. Some had started to flower and the root turned pinkish. I think this caused the non edibility. I did harvest the leaves which are good to eat. The stems were not as good. The plants have grown quite big.

Rubarb:
The two rubarb plants that were cultivated at home and planted out a month ago are looking good. They have grown well. I covered the ground around them with some hay.


Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #257 on: September 03, 2022, 03:07:52 PM »
At home:

Tomatoes: my microbush tomatoes sowed in march have lots of red or almost red tomatoes now. The one sowed in June has one tomato and lots of flowers. The beef tomato atill has one large totally green tomato and one half red/green, 2 tomatoes grown together. Next year I will not have beef tomatoes, but stilk to cherry tomatoes, much easier.

Herbs:
The basil is still going strong. I put a couple of them together in a bigger pit to keep through the winter. The rest I will keep as long as they look healthy. But 23 plants is a big number. And in a few weeks I need to move many more plants indoors. The lovage is cut down for autumn. It hadn't grown so wildly anymore since last time I harvested a lot. The other herbs (sage, rosemary and thyme, as well as Russian esdragon) are still growing well. The mint that I transferred to a bigger pot has grown a lot. Before transplanting, some roots had started to grown through the bottom of the cloth pot.

New seedlings:
I sowed new lettuce, 2 types, new kale, Chinese cabbage, radish and spinach. The radishes are growing well, as do the kale and cabbage. The spinach hardly does anything. The seeds were quite old. I received fresh sticks of perennial kale from another person and put those into soil. Hope this will turn into a robust type of kale.

Peppers:
The sweet bell peppers are still doing well. All plants have some almost red peppers, and a few green. They can continue indoors in a while. The normal bell peppers are tiny, but a few are red. The remaining still green.
The brazilian starfish chili peppers are now growing branches sidewards, producing lots of flowers and starting peppers. This hapoened after I pulled out the bushy tagetes plant from each pot. The tagetes probably absorbed a lot of nutrition. The plants seemed to use all their energi to grow high. Now they finally look strong and thriving.
The cayenne peppers from last year have been very productive this year in number of fruit bodies. But many are tiny. And the plants have curled up leaves that I can't change. Next year I will plant jalapeno pepper instead and throw away these plants when their fruit have finished. I will keep a healthy looking cutoff.

Lime:
The kaffer limes are still thriving, now in their bigger pot. They grow noticeably each week. I hope they will survive a winter indoors without grow lights.

Potatoes:
If I have time, I will harvest my last batch of potatoes tomorrow. They have stood in dry soil for more than 2 weeks after pulling out the yellow plant. Those pitatoes are supposed to have gotten a thick skin and become my next year seeding potatoes.

YttriumNitrate

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #258 on: September 18, 2022, 11:00:16 PM »
Back in 2016 I planted a bunch of pawpaw trees at a property of mine that is now about two hours south of where I live. Aside from occasionally driving down and hacking at some of weeds, the trees have been on their own. This past weekend I stopped by and was able to pick 20-30 pounds of pawpaws (9-14kg). If I were to do a  better job of keeping the weeds down, I could probably get several times that amount.

E.T.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #259 on: September 22, 2022, 06:10:50 AM »
Back in 2016 I planted a bunch of pawpaw trees at a property of mine that is now about two hours south of where I live. Aside from occasionally driving down and hacking at some of weeds, the trees have been on their own. This past weekend I stopped by and was able to pick 20-30 pounds of pawpaws (9-14kg). If I were to do a  better job of keeping the weeds down, I could probably get several times that amount.

That's fantastic. What do you do with all the extra fruit? I'm not familiar with how paw paw tastes. Is it good for jams?

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #260 on: September 22, 2022, 07:50:52 AM »
Back in 2016 I planted a bunch of pawpaw trees at a property of mine that is now about two hours south of where I live. Aside from occasionally driving down and hacking at some of weeds, the trees have been on their own. This past weekend I stopped by and was able to pick 20-30 pounds of pawpaws (9-14kg). If I were to do a  better job of keeping the weeds down, I could probably get several times that amount.

That's fantastic. What do you do with all the extra fruit? I'm not familiar with how paw paw tastes. Is it good for jams?
That is so cool.  I have not tasted pawpaws but have heard them called mangoes of the north.

tygertygertyger

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #261 on: September 22, 2022, 07:54:42 AM »
I found some wild ones last year. They were very banana-y, with a tropical side flavor. My friends that we shared with weren't impressed. But I've heard cultivars are much more tasty than wild ones. I've also heard that every wild patch is likely to taste different. (I only know of one patch.)

I've been thinking about planting some in our backyard, so please let us know what yours are like!

YttriumNitrate

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #262 on: September 22, 2022, 08:11:53 AM »
That's fantastic. What do you do with all the extra fruit? I'm not familiar with how paw paw tastes. Is it good for jams?
Right now I'm just freezing the extra pulp, but people do make jams with it. Here's a place that sells pawpaw jams.
https://integrationacres.com/

Kentucky State has lots of recipes using pawpaws:
https://www.kysu.edu/academics/college-acs/school-of-ace/pawpaw/recipes-and-uses.php?fbclid=IwAR09v_RexJzyiRliXZMjqgEZK5dnNNsxxrpbOjz77OIkjJ4TxznI51SxlSE

The flavor is somewhat similar to banana mixed with other tropical flavors, but real answer is that pawpaws taste like pawpaws.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #263 on: September 22, 2022, 08:19:43 AM »
My garden has been mixed this year.  Some crops have been fantastic - tomatoes, tomatilloes, peas, zucchini, garlic, beets, all the greens.  Others not so: squash and peppers.  Others have been just enough for my purposes such as the cucumbers.  Still waiting to dig potatoes, sweet potatoes and pull the onions.  But so far have not needed to buy any onions or leeks. 

I have not been as successful at succession planting as I was last year.  But all in all, especially considering I had a major surgery April 8th and bad injury January 29th that I am still recovering from, my garden has been fantastic.

There is frost in the forecast for tonight. 

I am going to plant all the garlic

YttriumNitrate

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #264 on: September 22, 2022, 08:25:35 AM »
I found some wild ones last year. They were very banana-y, with a tropical side flavor. My friends that we shared with weren't impressed. But I've heard cultivars are much more tasty than wild ones. I've also heard that every wild patch is likely to taste different. (I only know of one patch.)
I've been thinking about planting some in our backyard, so please let us know what yours are like!

There's definitely a lot of variability in how they taste, some have a really strong tropical flavor while others are quite mild. Also, their flavors change as they ripen so that's a factor too. The first time I tried a pawpaw it was a foraged under-ripe seedy little thing that I paid way too much for at a farmer's market, and it was absolutely terrible. Properly ripened pawpaws are so much better.

Here is a description of some of the pawpaw cultivars.
https://www.pawpawschule.de/menu-english/pawpaw-cultivars/

Trifle

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #265 on: September 24, 2022, 04:02:36 AM »
I found some wild ones last year. They were very banana-y, with a tropical side flavor. My friends that we shared with weren't impressed. But I've heard cultivars are much more tasty than wild ones. I've also heard that every wild patch is likely to taste different. (I only know of one patch.)
I've been thinking about planting some in our backyard, so please let us know what yours are like!

There's definitely a lot of variability in how they taste, some have a really strong tropical flavor while others are quite mild. Also, their flavors change as they ripen so that's a factor too. The first time I tried a pawpaw it was a foraged under-ripe seedy little thing that I paid way too much for at a farmer's market, and it was absolutely terrible. Properly ripened pawpaws are so much better.

Here is a description of some of the pawpaw cultivars.
https://www.pawpawschule.de/menu-english/pawpaw-cultivars/

Our pawpaw trees haven't yet borne any fruit, so last week we picked some from the local community orchard.  They were delicious, though my husband had gastro-intestinal problems from eating them.  (No food in his life has ever bothered him.  He has an "iron gut."  But these did.)   

I googled it, and it looks like some people experience that with pawpaws.  Do you know if that's a common thing @YttriumNitrate, and any thoughts on what causes it?

gaja

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #266 on: September 24, 2022, 10:35:24 AM »
This years garden was a complete bust. I almost got one ripe cherry tomato. But the perennials I stratified are growing well. Today I finally got the small vossakvann (Angelica archangelica) plants in the ground. They should hopefully flower next year, if they survive the winter and the extremely nutritious soil I planted them in (from the old hen coop). The heartnuts might have suffered a bit from too small pots, but I have more nuts to stratify this winter if these die. I thoought the pawpaw seeds were a loss, but left them to the side and in June I suddenly saw the roots popping out. They are all potted in deep pots now, but I'm not sure they will survive our winters. The minikiwis appear very happy, and have more than outgrown the two meter espalier I gave them to climb on. Hope DH will be able to make a better climbing system before next spring, when we can expect the first flowers.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #267 on: September 25, 2022, 12:37:31 AM »
This years garden was a complete bust. I almost got one ripe cherry tomato. But the perennials I stratified are growing well. Today I finally got the small vossakvann (Angelica archangelica) plants in the ground. They should hopefully flower next year, if they survive the winter and the extremely nutritious soil I planted them in (from the old hen coop). The heartnuts might have suffered a bit from too small pots, but I have more nuts to stratify this winter if these die. I thoought the pawpaw seeds were a loss, but left them to the side and in June I suddenly saw the roots popping out. They are all potted in deep pots now, but I'm not sure they will survive our winters. The minikiwis appear very happy, and have more than outgrown the two meter espalier I gave them to climb on. Hope DH will be able to make a better climbing system before next spring, when we can expect the first flowers.

Do you have minikiwis that survive outside in winter? Could you please tell me that the name is, and how mamy male/female of double gender you have?

For Angelica arc. I only tasted the wild one that grows in the mountains (fjellkvann). It has a strong, particular taste and I wasn't wild about it. But I know that your variety has been cultivated for centuries for it's good taste.

YttriumNitrate

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #268 on: September 25, 2022, 06:23:27 AM »
Our pawpaw trees haven't yet borne any fruit, so last week we picked some from the local community orchard.  They were delicious, though my husband had gastro-intestinal problems from eating them.  (No food in his life has ever bothered him.  He has an "iron gut."  But these did.)   

I googled it, and it looks like some people experience that with pawpaws.  Do you know if that's a common thing @YttriumNitrate, and any thoughts on what causes it?

From what I understand, there might be a few factors causing your husband to have problems. First, like most foods, some people are just sensitive to them and don't react well. Second, there's a good amount of variation between the cultivars. I've heard the the more improved cultivars tend to have lower levels of  acetogenins than more wild types, but I don't know if that is true. Third, eating under ripe pawpaws can cause issues, but you indicated that they were delicious, so that was probably not the case. Fourth, accidentally ingesting one of the seeds can cause problems.

gaja

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #269 on: September 28, 2022, 03:44:29 PM »
This years garden was a complete bust. I almost got one ripe cherry tomato. But the perennials I stratified are growing well. Today I finally got the small vossakvann (Angelica archangelica) plants in the ground. They should hopefully flower next year, if they survive the winter and the extremely nutritious soil I planted them in (from the old hen coop). The heartnuts might have suffered a bit from too small pots, but I have more nuts to stratify this winter if these die. I thoought the pawpaw seeds were a loss, but left them to the side and in June I suddenly saw the roots popping out. They are all potted in deep pots now, but I'm not sure they will survive our winters. The minikiwis appear very happy, and have more than outgrown the two meter espalier I gave them to climb on. Hope DH will be able to make a better climbing system before next spring, when we can expect the first flowers.

Do you have minikiwis that survive outside in winter? Could you please tell me that the name is, and how mamy male/female of double gender you have?

For Angelica arc. I only tasted the wild one that grows in the mountains (fjellkvann). It has a strong, particular taste and I wasn't wild about it. But I know that your variety has been cultivated for centuries for it's good taste.

We haven't gotten kiwi fruit yet, since they were only planted last summer. Hopefully they will flower next spring, and then we'll see if they can handle the climate. Since this is a test for survival, I got one of each I could find: Super Jumbo, Ken's Red, Geneva, and Weiki. And Weikii for male (almost same name as the female). We planted four plants along a wall, with the male in the middle. Issai is one of the few self fertile minikiwis, but apparently the taste isn't as good as the others. So since we have enough space for both males and females, I skipped that one.

Yes, the vossakvann should be less bitter, and also contain more food since the stalks are filled and not hollow. The history of angelica is quite cool, the vikings started the cultivation of it, it is mentioned by Snorri in Edda, and it was spread throughout the viking areas since it was considered an important vegetable and medicine. Many years ago I helped collect plants from Arctic for genetic testing, including angelica. I don't know if that study was the same as the one mentioned in this article, but the results are really interesting: https://www.nordgen.org/en/plant-portraits/norwegian-angelica-2/

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #270 on: September 28, 2022, 04:19:09 PM »
We got our first winecap mushrooms coming in! We spread the mycelium under some pine trees in the backyard, mixed with hardwood mulch, and it spread like crazy. We've seen lots of evidence of animals digging around in there, but finally we found our first few small mushrooms this week. Most of those were knocked over with bites out of them, but there is one perfect mushroom coming up and we put a chicken wire cloche over it to protect it.

Omelette in a couple days, I hope!

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #271 on: September 29, 2022, 04:12:17 AM »
Our pawpaw trees haven't yet borne any fruit, so last week we picked some from the local community orchard.  They were delicious, though my husband had gastro-intestinal problems from eating them.  (No food in his life has ever bothered him.  He has an "iron gut."  But these did.)   

I googled it, and it looks like some people experience that with pawpaws.  Do you know if that's a common thing @YttriumNitrate, and any thoughts on what causes it?

From what I understand, there might be a few factors causing your husband to have problems. First, like most foods, some people are just sensitive to them and don't react well. Second, there's a good amount of variation between the cultivars. I've heard the the more improved cultivars tend to have lower levels of  acetogenins than more wild types, but I don't know if that is true. Third, eating under ripe pawpaws can cause issues, but you indicated that they were delicious, so that was probably not the case. Fourth, accidentally ingesting one of the seeds can cause problems.

Thank you!  Very helpful @YttriumNitrate

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #272 on: October 04, 2022, 12:12:19 PM »
Today I am back home after 2,5 week. My sweet bell peppers have lots of red peppers and 1 green one. The plant without peppers has lots of flowers. The brazilian stafish all have many green peppers. I wonder whether they will become red this year. I will try to eat one green and see how that works out. The Cayenne peppers are still growing lots of fruit, some red, some green and new flowers. They still have lots of leaves that are bowed together, and lots of fresh new leaves. In January I will saw Jalapeno peppers.

Today I cut the leaves off the chicory and put the roots in one pot that I moved into the cellar, withput light. The idea is to give them darkness ans cold, and later put them somewhere warm, but dark. Then they will grow new leaves that are white, hopefully.

I also planted new garlic cloves, 2 different types (sabagold and vallelado, both softneck). I have lots of garlic cloves left, so I will see if I can sell the remaining cloves. I don't remember whether I have space left at the cabin for additional garlic plants. At the cabin I planted my own Valdres hardneck cloves.

I transferred a thyme plant to a pot because the lovage plant that I cut down a couple of weeks ago is growing new leaves and dominating the crate. The sage in the same crate was properly stuck, so I left it there.

My new tomato plant, Tartufo, has now 5 tomatoes and a couple of new flowers. As well as some very crappy flowers. Nor sure whether it thrives indoors, but it will have to do.

I picked my last bell peppers and will not keep the plants through the winter. The sweet peppers worked out better, so I will keep those. Indoor space is precious.

My basil plants are still going strong. And the kaffir lime is still growing more leaves, although slowly.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #273 on: October 04, 2022, 01:32:03 PM »
We had a hard frost and everything tender is mushy goo.

Got to get all the produce harvested and processed.  Why did I offer to host family Thanksgiving for 21 on Sunday?

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #274 on: October 11, 2022, 12:21:32 PM »
I'm finally building my greenhouse kit which has me thinking about seed starting next year. I'm planning to get a heat mat, but I'm stuck on whether to get seed trays.

Does anyone do soil blocking? Any pros/cons vs buying some 50 cell trays? Did you find it made a difference with root growth/transplant shock? How is watering - do they fall apart?

tygertygertyger

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #275 on: October 11, 2022, 12:49:08 PM »
Our wine cap mushrooms are finally coming up in the hardwood mulch under the trees. We started seeing little caps that had been knocked over by squirrels or chipmunks, but now as soon as we see a mushroom popping up, we cover it with a chicken wire cloche. I'm eating mushroom omelettes every morning, which are delicious. I don't think we'll have too many more weeks of them, so I'm enjoying them while I can.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #276 on: October 11, 2022, 02:35:23 PM »
I'm finally building my greenhouse kit which has me thinking about seed starting next year. I'm planning to get a heat mat, but I'm stuck on whether to get seed trays.

Does anyone do soil blocking? Any pros/cons vs buying some 50 cell trays? Did you find it made a difference with root growth/transplant shock? How is watering - do they fall apart?

Yes, a heat mat is very useful for growing from seed.

I have no experience with soil blocking. But you'll find it on youtube. I tried home made seed pots from toilet rol, as well as peat pots. Both start to mold easily.
An alternative is just using the normal trays with each seed in one "cup". They don't work great to get the seeds out, but it usually works out. Trays for 50 seeds seem very large to me, as seedlings tend to get entangled easily. I get the impression that soil blocks are the better solution. But everything might still entangle.
With normal seed trays, I often damage the new root when I get the plant out. Especially when the root is quite long and grows out of the bottom sideways. Usually the plant survives anyway.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2022, 07:52:20 AM by Linea_Norway »

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #277 on: October 12, 2022, 06:32:47 PM »
I'm finally building my greenhouse kit which has me thinking about seed starting next year. I'm planning to get a heat mat, but I'm stuck on whether to get seed trays.

Does anyone do soil blocking? Any pros/cons vs buying some 50 cell trays? Did you find it made a difference with root growth/transplant shock? How is watering - do they fall apart?

Yes, a heat mat is bery useful for growing from seed.

I have no experience with soil blocking. But you'll find it on youtube. I tried home made seed pots from toilet rol, as well as peat pots. Both start to mold easily.
An alternative is just using the normal trays with each seed in one "cup". They don't work great to get the seeds out, but it usually works out. Trays for 50 seeds seem very large to me, as seedlings tend to get entangled easily. I get the impression that soil blocks are the better solution. But everything might still entangle.
With normal seed trays, I often damage the new root when I get the plant out. Especially when the root is quite long and grows out of the bottom sideways. Usually the plant survives anyway.
I've been doing soil blocking for 2 garden seasons now.

My experience is that it has merits but there is a learning curve. I did less soil blocks this year simply because I had to plan my whole spring around recovering from a  surgery and an injury. I know how well plants grown in plastic pots and plastic pots are a lot more forgiving.

Soil blocks are fussy to make if you have to figure out what a good mix looks like every time you do it. I didn't get to the point of it ever being fast the way some people on YouTube are.  And once the seedling outgrows the block, they got move up or get out in the garden. They are not great for holding on the way a plant might just be getting pot bound in plastic

I have had good success with starting lots of different cold hardy things using soil blocks in clear plastic salad containers. I get good germination because I monitor them closely in the house and then as soon as they need light, out they go on the driveway and into full sun. Sometimes the container holds 15 cubes and 2-4 seeds in each is a good enough amount of lettuce or kale for a feed. I can plant up 6 salad boxes each with a different type of seed and keep them coming along in a really efficient relay. The smaller number of cubes is manageable. I water against the plastic edge so I don't wash off a corner.

I like starting tiny seeds in the mini cubes. It is easy to sow and then as soon as they germinate pop them in to a really damp cube so they just keep going. I also do tomatoes this way.

This year I germinated the tomatoes in the tiny cubes.  Then moved them into cubes. And a few weeks later I put them into a newspaper pot folded around a champagne bottle. I was able to hold them a good long time in the newspaper pots by adding a shot of fertilizer every week to the pots. I use the red hen fertilizer pellets. They are stinky enough to repell squirrels for about a week.

Onions didn't work well in the blocks.  They get such a long root before they are able to hold the block together. 

I tried the huge blocker for my peppers and found it really hard to use. They were really difficult to keep the right amount of wet. I over watered one day or missed one block the next.

They do transplant out fast and I hate fussing with getting plants out of the trays. And I find the flexibility of having exactly the number of plants in a single species tray is worth the effort of making the soil blocks.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #278 on: October 13, 2022, 07:00:46 AM »
@Frugal Lizard Thanks for the readout of your experience. I watched a bunch of youtube videos and got a similar impression to what you're saying - that it was likely to take longer and be more fussy than they make it look.

My biggest reason for wanting to do something different is not wanting to buy flimsy plastic that would crack in a season or two. I'm betting that I would find soil blocks a hassle and not stick with it though.

After some more internet rabbit holes I found this sturdier seed tray which is supposed to have some of the root benefits of soil blocks. I'm going to give them a try. https://www.neversinktools.com/products/winstrip-gardeners-kits They're expensive, but I like that it's easy like a seed tray and tough enough to be a buy it once product. I also like that the bottom holes should make it easier to pop plants out of the tray than what I've used in the past.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #279 on: October 13, 2022, 08:58:50 AM »
I killed my indoor basil forest. We are now getting much less light from outside and my basil plants in yoghurt cups didn't look great. I think they need more light. I don't want to use artificial growing lights with todays energy prices, because those use as much energy as and old-fashioned 60 Watt lightbulb. So I'll grow new basil plants when the days grow longer again, in March or so. I still picked another bag and a half with basil leaves. They have been really productive. It is a matter of cutting the leaves correctly, so that you can steer whether they will grow in hight, or split the stem in two. When they become more bushy, they produce more leaves.

My sweet pepper plants got lice indoors. I picked the remaining sweets peppers, took the plants outside and cut off the stem until above the lowest split point. Then I left them outside for a week or so. Now I put them upstairs in a cold, but light room. It is not very critical, as they were pretty productive the first year from seed. But I hope they might be more productive after growing thicker roots.

The chilies are still in the living room, in front of a window to the west. The Cayenne fruits are turning red. The Brazilian Starfish are only growing bigger fruits, still green. I removed the flowers from all plants, as I want them to concentrate on getting bigger and red fruits.

The tomato Tartufo (in the living room) is having 6 or so tomatoes that are slowly getting bigger.

One of the kaffir limes got white fungus material on top it's soil, so I must have giving it too much water. Both plants are still looking good and growing slowly. They won't get water for a while. They stand inside in front of a corner window, south/west.

Outside, my Chinese cabbage is growing big (wide) leaves, but has nothing that looks like a cabbage yet. I presume those green leaves are also edible? No prest animals are showing this time of year outside.

The kale grows in yoghurt cups which are not so big. But they all have grown a couple of leaves. We can eat those when we feel for it. I don't have bigger pots available for them, or I should use a few I just got the basil out of.

My radishes are developing radishes. Quite small still, but they work as expected.

I planted my newly bought garlics, 2 types. I used as many cloves as I have place for in pots. This time, I used one clove per small (3 liter?) pot, instead of 3 cloves in the same small pot. And the big pots got 2 or 3 cloves. I still have lots of cloves left. I tried to sell them locally on facebook, but no one is interested yet. Plan B is to plant them in DH's grape box. DH plans to take the grapes out to let them spend the winter somewhere else, to prevent them from freezing in the box like last year. DH says I can use the box for planting garlic cloves until we have a solution to transfer the garlic somewhere else next summer. Maybe at the cabin. Plan C is to just eat them.

I did a few transplants from plants that I received from other people (apple mint and perennial kale), but all those are not showing growth yet. I put them all outside, as that is where they are supposed to grow. We'll see how they will turn out next spring.

Also the Allium Victoralis and Meum athamanticum that I sowed are not showing anything yet. But maybe that is the point about seeds that must be sowed in autumn. I also sowed a few of these at our cabin a while ago.

The autumn sowing of lettuce is showing very few seeds that sprouted from the one type, and lots of sprouts, but one only growing up from the other type. Maybe I won't do that again so late in the year. Or I should move them indoors.

I pulled out the tomato plants that were still standing in a large pot outside. This large tomato pot had a colony of tiny ents all summer. So I should remember not to reuse this soil inside the house. And I hope they will freeze to death this winter.

I also threw away my indoor crassula ovata, the money tree. It didn't grow money. It was growing with 3 plants in a tiny pot on the dining table and not looking pretty. And I don't really want to use a lot of effort on a non-edible plant. I have been thinking for a year about getting rid of it. Today I finally got the nerves to do it. Now we only have 12 plants left in the living room, including 1 not-edible, plus the 4 sweet peppers upstairs. And I still need to move the pots with rosmary indoors (upstairs) when the weater gets really cold.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2022, 09:01:37 AM by Linea_Norway »

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #280 on: October 15, 2022, 11:31:51 AM »
(cross posted from my journal)
Will someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong with sweet potatoes? I planted in the early summer and harvested as soon as I started seeing in yellow in the vines. I have a bunch of gargantuan potatoes when I'd rather have more typical baking sized tubers. Am I supposed to harvest throughout the season? If so, do you bury anything that's not big enough yet? Should the whole thing be in containers instead of garden beds?

« Last Edit: October 19, 2022, 01:19:00 PM by the_hobbitish »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #281 on: October 26, 2022, 01:26:13 AM »
I am still growing stuff.

This week, I repotted my kale plants to bigger pots that were now available. They still stand outside.

I took the 2 types of lettuce inside the house. They have grown a bit. According to DH they grow really slowly, but I think it is because of the lack of light.

My 5 brazilian starfish plants are getting their second red pepper. I tasted the first pepper, raw, and that was really hot. That was unexpected, as I thought it would be mild to medium hot. Next year I will grow Jalapeno.

The Chinese cabbage is still growing more green leaves, but not a cabbage yet.

I planted the left over garlic cloves in the crate where DH had his grapes, which are now removed. I put some ash and a lot of autumn leaves on top of them. I also added autumn leaves on all the other pots that have garlic cloves or other seeds in them.

My indoor tomato plant has dark tomatoes and they are now getting slightly redder. Now I just need to wait until they feel juicy. I hope that happens before they will rot. My outdoor tomatoes have been removed and the remaining tiny  tomatoes are still getting red in the living room. Also that is a slow process.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #282 on: October 26, 2022, 07:39:31 AM »
@the_hobbitish my sweet potatoes are the same - either a small football or a swollen root. Nothing in between.

I got a ton from only 10 slips in weight. It is going take planning to cook a 4pound sweet potato for just the 2 of us. I was wondering if the cause was my soil was too compacted or lack of regular rainfall.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #283 on: October 26, 2022, 08:04:48 AM »
Frugal Lizard I'm facing the same cooking dilemma. I may end up cubing and freezing the huge ones.

Maybe next year I'll try mixing in more sand and letting them run a bit instead of trellising them. I'm not sure if the trellis contributed to the size problem. Do you trim your vines back at all?

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #284 on: October 26, 2022, 08:24:26 AM »
@the_hobbitish - it was my first time growing them.  I planted in ground, regular old garden, mulched with some straw just beyond them and that was it.  They ran all over and made a huge dense mass.  I pulled Canada thistles as I could reach. 
No trimming
no trellising
not too rich a soil 
watered once a week by sprinkler.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #285 on: October 26, 2022, 09:19:15 AM »
@the_hobbitish my sweet potatoes are the same - either a small football or a swollen root. Nothing in between.

I got a ton from only 10 slips in weight. It is going take planning to cook a 4pound sweet potato for just the 2 of us. I was wondering if the cause was my soil was too compacted or lack of regular rainfall.

Winter squash make a great soup or pie (canned pumpkin  is actually a squash).  Could sweet potatoes substitute for squash in a soup or pie?  That would use up the big fat ones more easily.

And yes, when I grew sweet potatoes (in nice loose soil) I got big fat ones, long skinny ones, and strings.  They seem very variable.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #286 on: October 30, 2022, 05:56:09 AM »
Not sure if this should go into the 2023-thread or here; we are currently planting garlic and flower bulbs. Got the first few hundred flower bulbs in the ground already, but next week I'll receive 600 more bought online on clearance. It is unseasonably warm here, so there is no rush to get everything planted. DD is currently mulching the flower bulb beds with compost from the chicken coop. I hope it isn't too hot, but I think it should be ok.

Next up will be to
-mulch and cover the areas I want for vegetables next year
-plant the berry bushes I got on clearance this week (several varieties of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, black and red currants, gooseberries, japanese quince)
-get the asparagus in the ground (sown from seed) now that I finally figured out where I want them

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #287 on: November 01, 2022, 11:24:13 AM »
135 cloves of garlic planted!

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #288 on: November 01, 2022, 11:48:36 AM »
5 pounds of garlic planted

gaja

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #289 on: November 02, 2022, 02:57:31 AM »
5 pounds of garlic planted

That sounds like a lot - how many bulbs/cloves (approximately) was that? And considering how garlic multiplies; do you eat 50 pounds of garlic a year, or is this also for sharing?

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #290 on: November 02, 2022, 07:36:47 AM »
5 pounds of garlic planted

That sounds like a lot - how many bulbs/cloves (approximately) was that? And considering how garlic multiplies; do you eat 50 pounds of garlic a year, or is this also for sharing?
I get about 25 pounds and a lot of it is shared. I need to preserve about 5th of the harvest for a seed for next year. The cloves are nice and big but there's only about 4 or 5 per bulb.

I dehydrated all the bulbs that were slightly less than perfect. I use a huge amount canning tomato sauce in August and September. The rest fits in a big onion bag. This winter, before it starts sprouting (as it always does) I am going to dehydrate or make frozen blobs of shredded garlic so that I have my own garlic until scapes or green garlic is available.  (I probably pick a good bit early as I need good tasting garlic in June so not all makes it to harvest.)


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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #291 on: December 02, 2022, 10:04:03 AM »
This week - before another stretch of deep freeze, I got out to the garden to finish the parsnip experiment - Total success! 4 pounds of beautiful parsnips.
Fifth times a charm!

What worked this year:  I germinated the seeds in 2" soil blocks in the basement in late July. I planted them into the garden, pretty close together, after 75% of the soil blocks had two leaves. They were planted flush  or slightly below the surface level of the soil.  The soil below them was broadforked several times so it was really loose and deep.  I watered them more frequently than the rest of the garden. 

tygertygertyger

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #292 on: December 02, 2022, 10:11:31 AM »
This week - before another stretch of deep freeze, I got out to the garden to finish the parsnip experiment - Total success! 4 pounds of beautiful parsnips.
Fifth times a charm!


That is fantastic! I tend to give crops 3 year trials... parsnips was one of my failures.

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #293 on: December 06, 2022, 06:18:54 PM »
I don't have a garden right now but early November I went over to DD's and filled every big pot I own with potting soil, and planted garlic.  Then I slashed open 2 big bags of potting soil on the bottom for drainage and on the the top for access, and planted more garlic.  I hope they all enjoy the winter and sprout next spring.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #294 on: December 07, 2022, 06:50:53 AM »
Last week, I took my Chinese cabbage indoors, in the living room, in front of a window. Since them they have been growing. Finally the inner cabbages are growing.

My brazilian starfish had lots of peppers, half red. Some plants had lice. I picked the peppers and cut those plants really short. I have 2 plants remaining with each a few peppers left.

I recently tasted a tomato from the dwarf tomato I put indoors. That didn't taste any good at all. My conclusion is that tomatoes need sunlight, as the tomatoes that I grew in the summer were extremely sweet. The last few weeks, the sky has been grey.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Planting and Growing Your Own - 2022
« Reply #295 on: December 14, 2022, 11:02:57 AM »
I created a new thread for next year:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/gardening-diy/planting-and-growing-your-own-2023/

My chinese cabbage (indoors in the living room in front of a window) is now starting to flower. I hope the leaves are still edible.

 

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