Morning harvest

[dtlove129]

I'm laughing because my wife had to go do something this morning, and she said last night when we were getting jars cleaned that there couldn't be that many cukes out there. Well we have put up 12 quarts so far, and you can see in the picture that she will be surprised that she has at least another 10 quarts to help with when she gets home.

We put up another 11 quarts of green beans last night. This weather is bad, but the garden is still producing.

Also the first eggplants are in. I dug a couple of hills of potatoes because I'm thinking a steak, baked potato, and salad sounds good for dinner after what is going to be a scorcher of me working outside today.

I'm wondering though that when our water bill comes in if I couldn't have afforded to go to a 5 star steak house!?

[Jeremy brua]

Very nice! I cant wait to get a harvest like that.

[jal_ut]

Beautiful harvest. I saw a little zucchini yesterday. I won't have cukes for a while yet.

[dtlove129]

Thanks Jal, that bucket made 20 quarts. So 32 quarts on the year now.

[lakngulf]

Great harvest. I know you will enjoy what you have preserved. Gardening is enjoyment: Anticipation for the plants to grow, pride in what God can do with soil and water, joy in picking the harvest, and winter time enjoyment.

Enjoy

[dtlove129]

Oh already enjoying the pickles. Last year we water bathed our pickles too long and they weren't crisp. This year we have over 20 quarts of sliced pickles so far and around 10 quarts of spears, and everyone of them I have eaten so far has a snap to it. I'm actually impressed with them, and looking forward to another 30 quarts I hope.

Next will be salsa. It turned out well last year, so this year it should be even better. You know it is good when coworkers are asking if we have any salsa yet.

[rainbowgardener]

My harvest today was a small bowl of ripe tomatoes (maybe 8 or so), a bunch more garlic, a bunch of basil, the first two bell peppers of the season, and MY FIRST EVER POTATO! Last year was my first year for trying potatoes, but they just got some kind of blight and died early. This year they are doing much better and have been blooming for awhile. I just couldn't resist digging down a little to see what was going on down there. Sure enough, right away I bumped into a little new potato a little smaller than a golf ball.

I'm not going to harvest more, just leave them til the plants are finished and then dump them all out, so I can see what my yield per container is.

But my garden continues to do well in this fierce heat and drought (heat index 103 right now and only slight chances of isolated thunderstorms in the 10 day forecast) as long as I keep watering and watering and ....

[ReptileAddiction]

Awesome Im jealous of that harvest

[Northernfox]

wow well done.... I am at least 4 - 6 weeks from that kind of haul... some times I dislike living further north

[rainbowgardener]

wow well done.... I am at least 4 - 6 weeks from that kind of haul... some times I dislike living further north

Sometimes I dislike living further north... I get envious all the South Carolina folks who are eating ripe tomatoes about the time I am putting my transplants in the garden. Don't know how you do it.

That's funny, Reptile... I was laughing at myself for being excited about 8 tomatoes, 2 peppers, and 1 potato... I'm a city gardener with 1/3 acre of not very arable land (steep, wooded, etc). The real gardeners with acreage would laugh at me...

The one baby potato was exciting just because I've never grown them before.

[dtlove129]

Anyone that wants cucumbers come by my house. I'm finished with them. We have put up 45 quarts of pickles. We may do another 5 quarts for an even 50, but I don't know what to do with the rest of them that are going to keep coming on.

Rainbow, I too got a couple of bell peppers this past weekend. There are couple of more ready to be picked. My hot peppers are ready, but I'm waiting on my tomatoes to ripen (haven't had one ripe tomato yet) just a ton of green ones.

My potatoes I got out really early this year, and dug up 5 hills of Yukon Golds the other day and got 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket. I look forward to digging the rest soon.

Looks like I'll be putting up corn in the next week or week and half.

Finally my giant pumpkin plant that I was so thrilled about is looking puny. I can't find anything that could have hurt it besides the heat. The vines are really wilty. I watered good last night so we'll see if it recovers. Everything else out there around it is getting the same amount of water and heat and such, and they look fine (smaller pumpkins, spaghetti and butternut squashes)....oh well, you win some and lose some.

[Northernfox]

I'll be right over. It is only 2800km. I can do that in a day

Rainbow gardener I brew beer.... That is how I get through spring seeing everyone's gardens doing well and food coming in.... All the while my plants are huddled under a light.

[rainbowgardener]

I've never grown any pumpkins, much less giant ones. But what I read about the giant ones is that they take huge amounts of water, like over 300 gallons a week per plant... And of course in this weather it will be moreso and with no rain, it all has to come from your hose. Just put a hose there and let it trickle 24/7.... And they need correspondingly high levels of nutrients.

[cubs204]

Anyone that wants cucumbers come by my house. I'm finished with them. We have put up 45 quarts of pickles. We may do another 5 quarts for an even 50, but I don't know what to do with the rest of them that are going to keep coming on.

Rainbow, I too got a couple of bell peppers this past weekend. There are couple of more ready to be picked. My hot peppers are ready, but I'm waiting on my tomatoes to ripen (haven't had one ripe tomato yet) just a ton of green ones.

My potatoes I got out really early this year, and dug up 5 hills of Yukon Golds the other day and got 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket. I look forward to digging the rest soon.

Looks like I'll be putting up corn in the next week or week and half.

Finally my giant pumpkin plant that I was so thrilled about is looking puny. I can't find anything that could have hurt it besides the heat. The vines are really wilty. I watered good last night so we'll see if it recovers. Everything else out there around it is getting the same amount of water and heat and such, and they look fine (smaller pumpkins, spaghetti and butternut squashes)....oh well, you win some and lose some.

Youve definitely got me beat on the pickles. Ive put up 15 quarts and am hoping for a total of about 25-30 when Im done. Im still pulling off a couple of pounds every couple of days. Im also with you on the tomatoes, the darn things have been full size for what seems like weeks now. I did notice that the better bush and better boys have really gotten a lighter green/ slightly yellow tint the last few days so Im hoping for some ripe ones here soon, but my beefsteak varieties look nowhere near turning yet ( theres a couple 1+ pounders on the Mr. Stripey too). I should have the first watermelon here in a week or two and the beans are almost done.

[dtlove129]

Well Rainbow, I guess I'll give up on a giant pumpkin because that sucker isn't getting 300 gallons a week! I don't plan to eat it like I do the other things, so it will just have to be a small rotten pumpkin haha.

I may see if it has perked up any today after the water I did give it, and if it did I may try to give it some more. If it appears I have lost it then so be it.

Peter, if you want more cukes come over. I'm going to guess that I could easily put up 100 quarts this year. I mean I have only picked them 3 times and have 45 quarts and have given some to friends and family, and they don't seem to be slowing down...just like the zucchini.

Does your brandywine have any maters on it? My brandywines are huge. I have actually never seen tomatoes so big.

[cubs204]

My Brandywine and Rutgers both have green tomatoes on them. The BW has significantly more but they were both planted later so they are still pretty behind my other ones. I can tell already that the BW is going to prodice some monsters as I have some that are only a week or two from pollination and are already pretty good sized. I also had a mega bloom on the BW and havent checked on it in a while to see if it pollinated. I hope it did because it was like a 3 or 4 flower bloom and that would yeild one ugly monster of a tomato. As far as the cukes go, what variety did you grow? Ill have to think about taking on some more as mine are still producing very steadily.

[dtlove129]

Not sure the names. I have the tags. It was 2 varieties of pickeling cukes.

[ReptileAddiction]

wow well done.... I am at least 4 - 6 weeks from that kind of haul... some times I dislike living further north

Sometimes I dislike living further north... I get envious all the South Carolina folks who are eating ripe tomatoes about the time I am putting my transplants in the garden. Don't know how you do it.

That's funny, Reptile... I was laughing at myself for being excited about 8 tomatoes, 2 peppers, and 1 potato... I'm a city gardener with 1/3 acre of not very arable land (steep, wooded, etc). The real gardeners with acreage would laugh at me...

The one baby potato was exciting just because I've never grown them before.

I have only harvested like 10 small peaches and about a cup of blueberries since november. My house takes up about ALL of my property so I don't have much room.

[rainbowgardener]

I grow a bunch of flowers and herbs and my steep hillside is a native woodland shade plants garden, but most of the veggies I grow are in five raised beds. It's amazing what you can grow in a limited space. I grow spring, summer, and fall crops in each one. One of the raised beds is in the middle of my little patch of front lawn and one of them is a community garden plot that is not my property.

[rainbowgardener]

Well, I'm thinking the 300 (or even 500!) gallons a week is what people do when they are trying to grow the county fair record giant pumpkins.



If you are willing to settle for just a large pumpkin, it can probably do with less, but still they are very thirsty.

[PunkRotten]

How many cucumber plants or vines are you growing to get that many cukes? What variety are you growing?

[dtlove129]

Hopefully my 2 smaller pumpkin plants will give us a couple of jack-o-lanterns.

The cukes I'm growing are Miss Pickler Hybrid and National Pickling Cuke from here http://www.henryfields.com/category/pickling_cucumbers

I have a 25 foot row with a trelis (you can see pics in some of my posts on here), and the spacing is probably 2-2.5 feet between hills and each hills has 2 or 3 vines.

I checked this morning and they are ready to pick again, so I may put up some more tomorrow while I'm putting up green beans. Like I told my wife we can always buy more jars for salsa and peppers later when they come on. I know last night we breaded some pickle spears and baked them, and they were great!

Last night over dinner we were talking about what we were eating:
eggplant parmesian lasagna
green beans
salad
baked pickles (appetizer)

Everything came out of the garden except the lettuce because mine has bolted now. Onions in the lasagna, salad, and beans. Yellow wax and green beans. Oh there were carrots in the salad, and I haven't pulled my carrots yet (anyone know when you should pull those?)

[jal_ut]

Carrots. They won't all be the same size. Just take a finger and move enough soil to see the top of the root and see how big they are. Then pull some of the larger ones and let the rest grow a while. I pulled a few the other day that were about the size of my little finger. They need more time, but I was anxious to taste carrots. They can grow all season here and just keep getting larger. I pull a few as we go along.

rainbowgardener, Wow! Nice pumpkins in your picture. I don't have the season for that kind of giant pumpkins here. My all time large one was 138 pounds. I'll bet the seed from these monsters will bring a premium price? There was some seed at my local store for $1 per seed. I bought two. We will see what comes of them.

[rainbowgardener]

just an image I found on-line. Actually I think they are pretty wasteful. As far as I know, no one eats those prize-winners....

"This stuff isn't edible. The seeds, like the ones for the "991 Ureña" pumpkin, have been cross-bred for shape, not taste. " in an article about a 2011 prize winning pumpkin 1,685-pounds http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 03708.html