Frost

[pow wow]

It's been snowing all day here in Calgary.

[jal_ut]

No snow here yet. Supposed to get some storm mid week. I went out and picked up what squash and pumpkins were left and got on the John Deere and tilled the plot. Let 'er snow!

[Dirt Man]

Growing up on the farm in Illinois everyone in the family grew crookneck squash. No one every grew zucchini squash. I learned about zucchini after moving to TN 1977. I did not grow zucchini often back then but now I think zucchini grows better than crookneck. This year I planted 4 of each 1 crookneck died early then 2 more died then the last one died they get some type root rot that kills them. Zucchini grows much better than crookneck so next year I will plant only zucchini but I like to eat fried crookneck better. Zucchini grows so fast it is hard to know what to do when 8 plants all have squash to harvest at the same time. Squash turns into mush if I can it in mason jars so Alice froze several bags this year. It is good fried with or without onions or potatoes and makes good bread also good on pizza. This year I learned to make zucchini smoothies.

[jal_ut]

I plant both crookneck and zucchini. I like the young crookneck sliced and fried with an onion. They get all hard and knobby if let to get large. Not much good for anything but decorations. Zucchini on the other hand is good when small for frying, or as it gets larger it has been used in many ways. Do a google search for zucchini recipes.

[digitS']

We could probably put our feet up and do some remembering ... and bore the younger gardeners .

People had dinner parties that featured spaghetti in the '50's. I still remember when I had my first slice of pizza, after the first pizza parlor opened in town. Maybe zucchini arrived with those and attracted attention because of it's Italian origin .

Freezing this morning by 3:20am.

Steve
who remembers when a picture of an Early Girl tomato first showed up on the front cover of the Burpee catalog.

[jal_ut]

Nice day here. 59 degrees, clear blue skies, gentle breeze. I went out and picked a bucketful of yellow apples, then brought them in and sorted through them and picked out the nicest ones and polished them up for market. Now here I sit playing on the computer and eating fresh apples.

[jal_ut]

Hmmmm...... lessee if this will work?

[applestar]

Oh yummy!

[jal_ut]

Just cut up a bucketful of yellow apples to go in the dehydrator.

BTW, that is my sister's apple crisp recipe.

[Taiji]

It has frosted here (over 5500 feet) the last few nights lightly. I have some volunteer potato plants coming up from this year's crop; must have missed digging a few small ones. Funny thing is, the frost is not hurting them. I think volunteer plants are stronger than sown ones. Some are actually getting up to about 15 inches high and real bushy.

Could I possible get a second potato crop in the same year from volunteer plants? That would be something. Maybe at least some small new potatoes! In this zone and at this elevation that would be unusual.

[jal_ut]

"Could I possible get a second potato crop in the same year from volunteer plants?"

Doesn't seem likely, however It ain't going to hurt to watch them and see what they do. When you see bloom on potato plants, they are usually making tubers too. Have fun!

[Taiji]

Yeah it won't hurt. The potatoes are coming up right in the middle of a bed of green onions I planted as a follow up crop, so it's an easy matter to pull the onions as I need them without disturbing the potatoes!

BTW, glad you're getting a nice apple harvest! Last year my tree was loaded, this year not a single apple. Just don't get it!

[jal_ut]

Thank you all for the Birthday Greetings.
Here, Sunday morning and its raining. Won't be working in the yard today. Maybe go to Church?
I suppose this rain could turn to snow and then we will be looking for the snow shovel?
Well I got the garlic planted..... let 'er snow!

[Gary350]

Weather is nice here no rain in 82 degrees today and 65 last night.

[digitS']

... Some are actually getting up to about 15 inches high and real bushy.

Could I possible get a second potato crop in the same year from volunteer plants? That would be something. Maybe at least some small new potatoes! In this zone and at this elevation that would be unusual.

I tried this deliberately one year.

Purple potatoes are a common "miss" for my careful, spud digging. Really, I usually find them all since I dig out the entire bed to about 8" in the harvest. Don't find all the purples, however. They come back as the tiniest of plants and account for nothing by season's end.

Back to re-planting deliberately one year: Potato harvest starts in my garden in July with earliest variety. Yukon Gold is an early variety and I moved some tubers to another location and replanted. I'd talked briefly to an actual potato farmer about this and he said that he didn't think it would work. Advice from a Virginia gardener was that it would work. I don't live in Virginia ...

I didn't even see those plants emerge that year. It was a mild winter, which is becoming somewhat common here. Those potatoes showed up in the spring. They produced tubers but didn't do as well as that year's plants. I don't know why that was.

I'd hoped for 2 harvests in the same year from a quick maturing variety. It didn't work. The tubers must have had their own ideas on the process. Your 15" tall plants sound like you have a good chance in your garden. I think it's worth a try to deliberately try this in some environments and with some varieties. It would be helpful if several ag schools would take it on as a research project.

Steve

[applestar]

I don't know if I can find it now, but there was an article by a Pennsylvania master gardener who wrote about fall-planting potatoes for next year's early new potato harvest to coincide with green pea harvest. I posted the link here a long time ago.

Vaguely remembered technique was to plant in a raised mound to avoid winter water logging and mulch really well 8-10" if I remember. It's ok for the tops to get frosted and die -- or maybe they were pruned down to be covered with the mulch. So even if they are not ready, you may be able to get them to survive the winter?

[Gary350]

I don't know if I can find it now, but there was an article by a Pennsylvania master gardener who wrote about fall-planting potatoes for next year's early new potato harvest to coincide with green pea harvest. I posted the link here a long time ago.

Vaguely remembered technique was to plant in a raised mound to avoid winter water logging and mulch really well 8-10" if I remember. It's ok for the tops to get frosted and die -- or maybe they were pruned down to be covered with the mulch. So even if they are not ready, you may be able to get them to survive the winter?

I have done that, plant potatoes on the high part of a slope then cover them with about 1" of soil. As the plants grow keep covering them up until I have them covered with 12" of soil. Then cover them with straw. If frost kills the surface plants they grow back. The 12" of soil protects the potatoes from freezing. If I plant in Sept I will have potatoes in Dec. We sometimes don't get a hard freeze until after Christmas. I leave potatoes all winter and dig them in spring. This is the best potato crop I can get in TN. I usually get 100s of nice potatoes but nothing larger than 2 1/2" diameter.

I planted potatoes Wednesday weather man said rain but no rain, it has not rained here in 2 1/2 months.

[digitS']

I don't have a problem with having potatoes with peas ... unless, it's the opposite of that Pennsylvania gardener.

Potatoes go into the soil just a few days into April, in a bed I've prepped the year before. After cultivation tasks are a little further along and the soil dries more from winter snow, the pea seed goes in.

Here are some varieties I grow - early potatoes, Potato Garden. There will be plenty available in early July when I have peas.

If anything, I'd like the peas to hurry up and produce about 2 weeks earlier. But, I can only push them so fast in cold, wet soil.

Steve

[jal_ut]

Overwintering potatoes at this locale is out of the question. The ground always freezes and with it any potato. Potatoes can be Spring planted early April. The same time you would plant pea seeds. Have fun!

About hilling potatoes, It is only necessary to pull a couple of inches of soil up around the vine. This simply to keep the expanding tubers from seeing the sun and turning green. Any more than that is a waste of the plants resources.