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digitS'
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Re: What are you eating from your 2019 garden?

digitS' wrote:... The only thing harvested out from under protective growing was some Walking Onions and Chives for scrambled eggs.

Usually, I would have Orach as volunteers but a different garden location meant that I decided to start seed in the hoop house. For variety, edible Amaranth will be along soon...
Still harvesting out of the hoop house but no amaranth so far. Plenty of orach ...

Aaaand, Choy Sum from the open garden ... :) This is something of a favorite Asian green and for some reason, I have a variety that grows taller than what I have found through the catalogs. Happy for it :D

Steve

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Green onions and ginger for my pork tofu, cutting celery for stew and romaine lettuce.

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TomatoNut95
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Say, imafan26, do you grow your celery from seed? I'd like to be able to grow some, but I've heard it's hard.

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rainbowgardener
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I heard that too, but I haven't found it to be so. This year my celery seed was planted in the ground and then we had rain, rain, rain and more rain. I thought it might have washed out/ rotted out. It did finally sprout some but with low germination rate.

Other years I have started celery indoors under lights. That worked well. And once transplanted out, they grew very well with little care. I ended up with a little celery hedge. I will say that all the times I have grown it (maybe four different years now), my celery stalks came out very narrow, maybe half as wide as the grocery store ones. I don't know what makes the difference. And just as garden tomatoes taste much more tomatoey than grocery store ones, the celery tastes stronger of celery. In this case not everyone likes the stronger flavor.

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applestar
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I have to start growing them again. A couple of years ago, two years running, I grew them from seeds — Tango and Ventura celery varieties — starting them indoors. They were slow to sprout but came up all at once/together. They grew well in my recycled Kcup pods. I planted them where they would get plenty of moisture, and they grew very well. 2nd year, I also grew Golden Pascal.

I left some of them in the ground un-harvested and they bloomed and went to seed in the 2nd year, and after that I had celery every year just by leaving some in the ground and letting them self sow. But I’m guessing the cycle got broken or I forgot and hoed down the baby celery because I think I’m not seeing them come up this year.

It’s actually good because I’ve been wanting to try growing Redventure, but haven’t been able to buy seeds because I hadn’t needed to grow new celery, and didn’t want to buy seeds when I wasn’t going to be using them soon (they have limited germination life). I can put it on my seed purchase wishlist for growing next year along with Chinese Pink Celery. 8)

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Gary350
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applestar wrote:I have to start growing them again. A couple of years ago, two years running, I grew them from seeds — Tango and Ventura celery varieties — starting them indoors.
I wish I could grow celery we need some for potato salad. Our potato hills are splitting open with lots of cracks there appears to be potatoes them there hills. Pickles need to be chopped into relish in food processor. We are almost ready to make potato salad.
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TomatoNut95
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Good grief, I don't believe I've seen so many pickles and mayo! Yeah, I'd like to be able to grow celery myself, but I've heard it's hard.

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@Gary350 you reminded me that I was going to try growing celery with potatoes — in UK somewhere, they grow specialty “white” celery by burying the bottom 6-8 inches of stalks as they grow.

Doesn’t that sound like perfect companion to potatoes that also need to be buried as they grow?

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TomatoNut95
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Today I picked two beefsteak tomatoes! Both of which I saved like a million seeds out of!

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I've eaten a bunch of greens and herbs, and today I ate some kohlrabi. I harvested a few okra, but I need more of those, to do anything with.

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My beefsteaks are in my sandwich right now at this very moment! :-()

I've tried to grow Kohlrabi, no luck with that either. :?

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Basically same as before. I still have broccoli making heads, since the different plants (all the same variety) conveniently grow and mature at different rates. I'm about to pull all the cabbage, which is getting pretty chewed up anyway. Lettuce and spinach are done, but chard and kale are getting big. Bean vines are about done. I'm going to pull them and plant more. First planting of corn has ears on it; second planting is knee high. I need to do the third planting. Lots of tomatoes of all sizes (biggest one so far was 3/4 lb). Hot peppers (Anaheim chills, mild), but no bells yet. Potatoes. Baby carrots. Lots of herbs and flowers. Dill is making seeds and coriander is flowering.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:My beefsteaks are in my sandwich right now at this very moment! :-()

I've tried to grow Kohlrabi, no luck with that either. :?
Glad your tomatoes are coming in now - enjoy!

Kohlrabi is something that does not like heat, like other brassicas. This is something you should be able to grow in the fall.

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Yeah, that's when I had tried it a couple of years ago......or was that spring?

Anyway, I had also picked a runted Cherokee Purple the other day. Letting it ripen further in the window. My 'mystery tomato' is finally turning, to! Can't wait to see what it's like so I can record it and add it to my scrapbook.
- I've recently started a tomato scrapbook. I've only got three or four pages so far because I intend to include photos of each variety. I record the plant type(determinate/indeterminate)(if it's a dwarf I record the plants maximum height) foliage type, fruit type/taste/texture/uses, and an 'extra note' section to mention problems or tendacies this variety may show or experience, or distinguishing characteristics the variety must show to be true to type. For example: my Ketchup Tomato is recorded as a fragile plant, and can get top-heavy; and the young plants must begin to lower their branches to start forming a bush as they age-which is typical for this variety.

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A second harvest of beet thinnings ...

This became one of my favorite vegetables after I began in control of my own garden :) . If I could succession sow beet seed, I would. However, in the summer heat, beet seedlings stall. Meanwhile, the early-sown beets advance towards maturity.

I am not much of a fan of beet roots. The beet relative, chard, has stems that don't appeal much to me, either. It was quite a few decades before I discovered thin-stem Verda de Taglio chard. Harvest, soon.

The plastic film came off the hoop house about a week ago. The Asian greens still in those beds seemed a little shocked by the direct sunlight but recovered from that situation in a short while. Orach is bolting to seed, which is a good thing because I need more than a skimpy , purchased packet. :wink: .

Peas of 3 types soon and since some of the potato plants are nearing the blooming stage (and by conventional wisdom, indicating tuber development), creamed peas and potatoes :) . We have also had a meager harvest of pea tendrils - if you have never tried them, take only about 7" inches at the bloom-stage. They taste like ... Peas!

Steve

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I pulled my Cherokee Purple from the window and opened it! It had a great taste- not as sweet as I was thinking! Quite pleasant. :D
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Last of the peas — stragglers. More carrot thinnings! They are getting bigger and substantial enough to be called baby carrots. Lots more to grow up to eating size. I’m really pleased with the performance of the carrots this year. :D

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Ah, carrots. Another one of my, 'tried-and-failed' veggies.

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CARROTS — This year, I concentrated on only growing early maturing short carrots that are recommended
- for growing quickly to harvest size as baby carrots, and
- for varieties that grow well in clay/heavy soils 12” deep or less, that can be allowed to mature to full size for storage.

Mokum F1
Napoli F1
Yaya F1
Danvers Halflong 126
Minicore
Tonda di Parigi

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TomatoNut95
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I think that Danvers Halflong is what I tried. Can carrots be grown in containers like those five gallon growbags?

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I’m not sure storage types like Danvers halflong will be able to grow in a container. Carrots need more soil depth than the length of just the edible part. That’s why baby carrot varieties are recommended for container growing. Round varieties like Tonda di Parigi, etc. should be OK though.

Ref :arrow: Root Development of Vegetable Crops: Chapter XXII
https://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/up ... 7ch22.html

— the main part of the report is on Chantenay variety which is also a half long type —

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TomatoNut95
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Ok, so if I try carrots for the fall, what month should I plant and should carrots not have so much nitrogen to promote leaf growth instead of good root formation?

I miss my rabbit. Even if I got microscopic carrots, she'd eat the little greens I'd give her.

I personally can't stand carrots. However my step-father loves the baby carrots and puts them in coleslaw, so he'd be the one eating them, not me. :) He also likes cabbage, so I tried cabbage once. All I got was one runty head. I boiled it and ate it anyway. I waste no runts. I go to the trouble of growing it, even as runty as my produce stays, I'm gonna eat it! :) It's runtiness doesn't affect the taste.

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Unless there are members here who live in the same area as you do, it will be difficult for any of us to tell you when is best time to start your fall crop. So in this case, I think it is OK to refer you to a link. I normally post a fall/winter gardening link at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in Virginia that I go by — actually I follow a middle ground between the Virginia one and one at Johnny’s Seeds in Maine. Territorial Seeds in Oregon has a pretty comprehensive guide, too.

This one at Texas AMU looks pretty good for you —and ha! There is apparently 5 identifiably different climate/growing regions in Texas....

:arrow: Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide for Texas

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TomatoNut95
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I read that and it said to amend your soil with sand- HA! What if you can't find sand, and for their information, you do not add sand to clay. Big fat no-no right there.

Ok, since I'm in zone 8 I'd be in region 3 and fall time for planting carrots is Nov. 10. :)

You buy from the Seed Savers Exchange? I recently bought three tomato varieties from them(Varigated tomato, Red Velvet and Silvery Fir Tree) and some blossom bags.

This morning at 7:30 I was hit by an unexpected storm. It didn't last an hour but because the wind was strong, I rushed out and closed the chicken area and moved a few plants.

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I have grown Danver's half long carrots. They are probably the easiest and most forgiving ones to grow. However, they don't taste very good. I really like Nelson, or nantes. Nelson and Mokum has some heat tolerance, but most carrots will do best if the temperatures are below 75 degrees.

If you are growing carrots only for the baby carrots and are not planning to let them mature, you can plant them shallower. However, the soil does have to be soft and smooth without a lot of clumps or rocks. Be careful when applying nitrogen. If the nitrogen is too high, the carrots will have a lot of tops and the roots will have more forks.

I can only grow them in the cooler months of the year if I want to eat them when the temperatures are milder and below 75. Carrots will not keep in the ground here. In hot weather, the plants do not die with adequate water, but the roots will get bitter and woody. I have carrots I planted in December and they are blooming now. They are only good for compost now.

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Until, today, I have been mostly casually thinning by harvesting the biggest baby carrots, but today, I decided to be more dedicated and thin the runty skinny root ones around the bigger ones so the bigger ones will fill out better... and thin any severely clumped carrot seedlings.

I ended up with a huge tangled mess of skinny tender carrot leaves with barely colored taproots — micro-greens, really. So I took a good handful of them, minced them fine, then sautéed with diced onions, some of the bigger carrots, and a strip of bacon to make an omelette. Yum! :D

...I also harvested three male squash blossoms — dusted with seasoned flour and pan-fried — nice edible garnish for the omelette,

Bigger baby carrot leaves will be dried to put in the herb/spice cabinet as dried parsley substitute.


...you two are lucky in a way that you can grow the carrots during your winter months. Here, the hard freeze destroys the carrot roots in the ground so they are not harvestable next spring, even though they might still be alive enough to bloom later in the summer. I’m not dedicated enough to mulch and then hoop tunnel, which I have heard is a way to manage this — then, supposedly, you can dig winter carrots by digging out the hoop tunnel.

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My carrots are blooming,and they are already 7 months old so way past eating. The tops are not bad as a substitute for parsley as a garnish. The cutting celery is also blooming and I am waiting for the seeds to mature since my old seeds were no longer viable.
I harvested corn from my garden and from the herb plot. Unfortunately they both came in at the same time and although I gave some of the corn away, some of them are now too starchy to eat. I think I will just replant the herb garden with corn and my other garden with something else. My biggest problem will be that the orchids will lose the shade protection once I pull out the corn. I have hot peppers, a few eggplant, meyer lemons, calamondin, persian lime, and my first diva cucumber from the vine. I have picked a butternut squash but I have not eaten it yet. The calamondin is good on fish. The meyer and persian limes I will juice and freeze into cubes for later.

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Thanks for the carrot info, guys! I'll give them a whirl again, but it'll have to be in a container. They'd form into to no telling what shape if their roots hit this clay. This first picture is from my raised bed this morning. The wet clay was sticking to my shovel making me mad. The next three pics are some of my tomatoes that are on the way!

1) my 'mystery tomato'
2) Bradley
3) Beefsteak.
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Whoops, it rearranged my photos when I posted them! :?

1) Beefsteak
2) Bradley
3) 'mystery tomato'
4) Clay hole.

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Carrots will do o.k. in a pot that is big and deep enough. We did grow baby carrots in a hydroponic bed that was only 6 inches deep, but we harvested them as baby carrots.

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Today I picked another Beefsteak and finally my new variety: Bradley tomato. I opened the Bradley to find a nice, meaty interior and a mildly sweet flavor. I found it easy to remove the seeds from the pockets of pulp. I put the seeds on the backporch to ferment them for saving.
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TomatoNut95
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Aww, rats. My 'mystery tomato' turned out to be just plain ole red. :? I'm really not pleased with this variety, with the plant and fruits splitting like that. I'm wondering if the variety might be better suited for up north perhaps. :|

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Today I've been a busy bee. Went to an acquaintance's house today and picked peas while listening to a gabby kid and a dog that kept wanting to be petted. Later I helped run them through the pea sheller....the peas that is, not the kid and the dog....and I almost stepped on two itty bitty toads while hauling my brand-new wagon into the backyard. Then, last nights storm caused a branch on that king kong sized Beefsteak to break so I wound up chopping a lot of that plant off because that plant is HHHUUUUGGGGEEEEE and was mashing my Blue Beauty plant and almost covering my poor Jalapenos.

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Honey butter and sweet bread. The honey was harvested from our hives on June 1.

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Fingering and baby carrots, raspberries, blueberries, very last of the peas as they are pulled from the garden, kale, onion greens, garlic chive scapes and leaves, marjoram, sage, oregano, basil....

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I was afraid my potatoes had rotted in the ground with all the rain we've had but their doing fine, so we're going to have new potatoes today. :)

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Well applestar for the first time ever broad beans (but I'm glad I caught them early!)

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TomatoNut95 wrote:Thanks for the carrot info, guys! I'll give them a whirl again, but it'll have to be in a container. They'd form into to no telling what shape if their roots hit this clay. This first picture is from my raised bed this morning. The wet clay was sticking to my shovel making me mad. The next three pics are some of my tomatoes that are on the way!

1) my 'mystery tomato'
2) Bradley
3) Beefsteak.

I've had so much trouble with tomatoes for years now that I'm envious of those that can grow a good crop. I've rotated them all over my garden but still wind up with fungal issues, pest issues and once again this year, far too much rain at the wrong time causing my tomatoes to split open on the vines while just starting to turn.

We went from no rain and a crazy water bill to keep things going to way too much rain over a short period that is ruining what tomatoes I now have on the vines. I just can't seem to win with tomatoes-------------------------or squash with the SVB's.

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Sorry to hear that, Gumbo. Choosing the right varieties may help. I think Lemon Squash was supposed to be resistant to the Squash bug. Try researching disease resistant varieties of squash and tomatoes. Baker Creek offers MANY varieties and will tell you if they're resistant to this or that.

I never have trouble with the squash bug. I'll see them around, but not in my garden. But I have other problems. My tomatoes don't normally split either, but my Beefsteak did a little and my 'mystery tomato' did something terrible. Not pleased with the way that mystery variety did: plant split, fruit split and blossom end rot.

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gumbo2176 wrote:I've had so much trouble with tomatoes for years now that I'm envious of those that can grow a good crop. I've rotated them all over my garden but still wind up with fungal issues, pest issues and once again this year, far too much rain at the wrong time causing my tomatoes to split open on the vines while just starting to turn.

We went from no rain and a crazy water bill to keep things going to way too much rain over a short period that is ruining what tomatoes I now have on the vines. I just can't seem to win with tomatoes-------------------------or squash with the SVB's.
I feel your pain, gumbo, with trying tomato rotation of crop. I am able to do that at my Old Houseplace/Farm garden as there is plenty of room. Tomatoes do well there but you are right about rain hitting at the wrong time. Those maters really need some hot dry weather to finish, or get too mushy with downpours at the wrong time. Still crop did OK. ALL Cherokee Purple this year.

At my Home garden I fought fungal/bacterial/wilt issues with tomatoes and finally went to all container gardening for Tomatoes there. I used these huge containers that farmers buy to get protein lick to their cattle. I haul rich farm dirt in from the homeplace and replace the soil every three or four years. When a tomato wilts, or plays out, I just pull it out of the container, plant some silver queen corn and keep on trucking.

The Cherokee Purples have been fantastic this year. I can't do pictures here but will try to add some tonight.



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