What will you try new, or abandon, in 2019?

[Vanisle_BC]

Happy New Year everyone! (It hasn't arrived here yet, but lang may yer lum reek.)

Are there any new plants - or techniques - that you'll try in 2019?
- Any you tried in 2018 that you won't bother with again?

I tried scorzonera (again) but that's the last time. I got a skinny decrepit little thing that may have been scorzonera but wasn't worth 'harvesting.' But my first attempt with Corno di Toro peppers was a big success; very productive, though late-ripening compared to Earlical & Anaheim.

Next year I'm going to try sweet potatoes; not commonly grown here, but earlies are said to be viable. And I have some sad-looking 'dormant' (dead?) peppers wintering indoors for the first time. We'll see what springtime brings. - Oh, and there's the dormant ginger that I grew for the first time this summer; out on the patio, roughly insulated.

I'll also be fertilizing with a lot more ash & bonemeal than before, to counterbalance my nitrogen-rich (mostly from grass & kitchen waste) compost. Roots have been suffering at the expense of foliage.

What's everyone else trying, or learning from, this time around?

[!potatoes!]

if root growth is suffering in favor of leaves because of your nutrient situation, why blame the scorzonera for being wimpy?

I'm mostly joking. scorzonera is a favorite of mine, the main secret to getting decent-sized roots being to leave them in a for a couple of growing seasons. they're perennials, after all, and not biennials like many of their relatives.

now that my DW is out of grad school and settling in to more 'normal' schedules, we'll be trying to actually do a vegetable garden this year, after a couple years of extremely minimal growing. that's going to be the biggest change. I've been keeping up on all my orchard and perennial plantings, but it's been too much to add anything else into the mix. hoping that more planning and more hands will help with that.

[SQWIB]

Off the top of my head....
Started a mini orchard, grapes, kiwi, columnar apples, peach, pear, apricot.
Ditched zucchini, spaghetti squash, swapped with butternut squash and cantelope.
Swapping yacon for sweet potatoes, trying more hybrid tomatoes.
New watering/water harvesting system.
New winter garden. Overwintering a few pepper plants.
In situ composting.
Added a few bat houses.

[Gary350]

I will NEVER plant Peas again. Waste of time, waste of garden space, wrong weather condition for peas.

I won't grow anymore sweet potatoes homeless shelter is refusing to take them and we don't eat them. Vanisle_BC, sweet potatoes are a 4 month crop you might need to start plants in 1 or 2 gallon pots inside the house if your growing season is too short. Nothing is easier to grow than sweet potatoes, each plant makes about 25 lbs of potatoes.

If I can ever get someone to come cut down this big tree I will build a nice 8'x14' green house for winter crops, carrots, garlic, onions, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, etc next year about Nov.

Looks like I need to buy 20 blackberry plants then baby them all summer in pots to plant in fall. Hot dry summer 100 degree no rain month after month kills my plants before they get a good root system.

We live 40 miles from the nursery capitol of the world I guess I better drive over to McMinnville TN and get me a peach tree to plant NOW. Spring is the wrong time to plant trees & that is the only time trees are sold in stores. Peaches make good wine & cobbler.

I am going to plant a small herb garden near the back door.

Not planting anything new in the garden this year, if we don't eat it I am not growing it. 8 rows of corn 40 ft long. 1 row tomatoes 40 ft long, 1 row potatoes 40 ft long, 2 rows beans 40 ft long. Maybe a 40 ft row of onions. 4 Red pepper plants, 1 squash plant, 8 okra plants. I would like to have 1 water melon plant but don't want 25 water melons, 3 is probably enough for the whole summer. Melons are 120 day crop the hotter & dryer it gets the better they like it in full sun all day.

[Vanisle_BC]

if root growth is suffering in favor of leaves because of your nutrient situation, why blame the scorzonera for being wimpy?

I think that's a valid question, and it it leads me to reflect on my earlier decisions to give up on some other roots like celeriac & root parsley. They taste great but I've never grown them to a decent size.

Thanks for the observation, and for pointing out that scorzonera is perennial. I've been reading about it online and one person reported that root pieces broken-off in the ground at harvest will regrow. In your own kitchen how do you deal with the external stickiness I see people commenting about?

[Vanisle_BC]

I will NEVER plant Peas again. Waste if time, waste of garden space, wrong weather condition for peas.

Haha YMMV! Peas come right behind tomatoes as my favorite crop. We love to eat them and they grow well here. Their main drawback is that they need so much space between rows (for harvesting access); also our season doesn't allow a second crop. If we want more peas we have to use more space. Also - no matter how cunningly I plan the timing - they always want to mature during our vacation. We've lately been staying close to home so that we can come back & harvest, mid-holiday.

As for sweet potatoes, I'm glad to hear they're easy to grow. I know they're long-season but I can get early variety 'slips' (started plants) from a New Brunswick supplier. If they can be grown there they should be feasible here, although I don't know of anyone doing that. I imagine the ones on the grocery shelves are imported from a long way off. I'm generally in favor of the '100-mile diet' and even more of the 100-yard diet .

It's hard for me to imagine someone having difficulty growing blackberries. Hereabouts they're like a (tasty & bear-attracting) weed. You couldn't kill them with a flamethrower.

Gary, it sounds as though you grow way more than enough to feed a single household. Do you mind my asking what you do with all that produce?

[Gary350]

I will NEVER plant Peas again. Waste if time, waste of garden space, wrong weather condition for peas.

Haha YMMV! Peas come right behind tomatoes as my favorite crop. We love to eat them and they grow well here. Their main drawback is that they need so much space between rows (for harvesting access); also our season doesn't allow a second crop. If we want more peas we have to use more space. Also - no matter how cunningly I plan the timing - they always want to mature during our vacation. We've lately been staying close to home so that we can come back & harvest, mid-holiday.

As for sweet potatoes, I'm glad to hear they're easy to grow. I know they're long-season but I can get early variety 'slips' (started plants) from a New Brunswick supplier. If they can be grown there they should be feasible here, although I don't know of anyone doing that. I imagine the ones on the grocery shelves are imported from a long way off. I'm generally in favor of the '100-mile diet' and even more of the 100-yard diet .

It's hard for me to imagine someone having difficulty growing blackberries. Hereabouts they're like a (tasty & bear-attracting) weed. You couldn't kill them with a flamethrower.

Gary, it sounds as though you grow way more than enough to feed a single household. Do you mind my asking what you do with all that produce?

A lot of what we grow goes into the pantry & freezer we eat it all winter. I like to plant extra if we have a bad year there is no way to catch up for what we lost if I plant only what we really need. I like to harvest all we need by July 15 or 20 and be finished with mason jars & the freezer. About 50 pints & 10 quarts of tomatoes are enough for the pantry this year. About 200 ears of corn in the freezer is about right. Some corn gets cut off the cob then go in pint mason jars. I'm not sure we can keep more than 25 lbs of potatoes from sprouting before they get eaten, some need to be in pint mason jars. Beans go in about 15 pint mason jars too. 1 row of beans is for my son he comes & picks his own beans. Every time my son comes he takes home, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, melons, onions, garlic, etc, too. My other son wants vegetables too if I deliver he works long hours 10 to 12 hours every day. The old lady across the street loves it when we give here vegetables. I was lazy this year I plants very few garlic.

Last frost is about April 20. If I buy blackberry plants & plant them by April 25, June 1st weather is often 90 degrees. Spring rain stops it will be 98 to 100 July 1st to Sept with maybe 1 rain per month all summer. If I plant blackberries in full sun where they like to be they will all die we often go camping 2 to 3 week of June. Plants will likely all be dead when we return. This summer only 2 blackberry plants lived. Once blackberries get established they are hard to kill. I want a 200 foot row of blackberries 6 feet wide so I can make 200 bottles of wine every summer. I need to get more serious about blackberry plants. This year we hope to spend 3 weeks of June in Michigan and the whole month of August or Sept in Idaho camping.

Sweet potatoes love hot dry weather, the hotter it gets with very little rain all summer the better they like it. Plants don't seem to care how bad soil is, they don't grow any better with fertilizer. Nothing you can do to make them grow better or worse. Ignore them and let them grow. Use a rake to keep vines in a row. Plant your plants 1 foot apart in rows. You being in Canada weather conditions are different you just have to see how sweet potatoes will grow there. Interesting thing about sweet potatoes vines will sprout roots and grow satellite potatoes all over the place. Vines with roots adds moisture to the mother plant I get 25 lbs from the mother plant and another 10 lb from satellite potatoes on 3 plants about 100 lbs of potatoes total. If you don't let vines root mother plant makes less potatoes and there are not many satellite potatoes. Last year I had 3 plants 2 ft apart, once a week I covered vines with soil every 18". I kept vines in a 10 ft diameter circle and harvested about 100 lbs of potatoes. This summer I planted sweet potatoes different in a row about 16 plants, 2 kinds of sweet potatoes and never took care of them at all. Vines took over 20 ft wide 40 ft long harvest was about 130 lbs total mother plants made 97% of the crop, there were not many satellite potatoes. If I every plant sweet potatoes again there will be 3 plants in a 10 ft circle there are more potatoes per sq ft with vines covered with soil every 18".

[imafan26]

I have started my 2018 garden so late that it is pretty much right now set up for 2019. I had some success with kohlrabi, so I am going to try that one again.

I am trying some "winter beans". My temperatures are under 80 in the daytime and get to the mid to low 60's at night. I know not to plant western beans because they will just mildew in the rain, so I am planting long beans. They are growing albeit very slow in the cold.

I have issues with downy mildew on basil and now tomato yellow leaf curl virus on tomatoes. I am planting more varieties of tulsi and African blue fil basils since they are resistant. I have ordered Charger and camaro tomatoes to try. I am going to try starting them now since there are fewer white flies around.

I am happy with the perpetual spinach. It is doing well in the garden.

I still have curly kale, It. parsley, moss curled parsely, and pepper seedlings to separate.

I will make more cuttings of the calamondin, persian limes, meyer lemon, bay leaf, rosemary, and I ohia lehua when they flush. I am making more pitaya cuttings and pandan as well.

[lakngulf]

(1) Will plant less Silver Queen corn this year. I have frozen a good bit over the last two years and can get by this year with only what we will eat fresh...….and we will enjoy that
(2) Staggered planting of tomato plants. I have tried this so many times, but they all seem to come around full blast about the same time. Will go Cherokee Purple and Gary O'Sena almost exclusively. Will continue okra because we love veggie soup made with Okra/Tomatoes cooked down and frozen. Add some sweet corn, chicken and ground beef and it is good
(3) Will not mess with sweet potatoes again. Not enough space here at home and the ground hogs eat the leaves at my farm garden
(4) I want to do better with egg plant. Always tough to get it going, seems the bugs like its leaves the best.
(5) I have saved up a lot of cardboard to help with weed control, but know it will get slippery when wet
(6) Going on a two or three week trip in May, so that will be a challenge to this years garden

[pepperhead212]

I have a bunch of tomato and a few pepper varieties that were "tried and failed" types, and always new ones there, but as far as plants that I am giving up totally, that would be canteloupes - they just do not do well here. I am trying some watermelons this year - hopefully, they will be more heat resistant, and this year will be less wet.

This year I will grow those bottle gourds again - they were new last year, but just 2 plants produced more than I could use for a period of time, but then fizzled out. So this year, I will do a succession planting with one of them, each a month apart. I am also doing this with a tomato variety - Sunset Falls - that produced a large number of fruits on a small plant over a short period of time. I usually don't grow determinate varieties, but this tomato was delicious, and I figured I'd grow more this time, over a period of time, with the succession planting.

[jal_ut]

Maybe I will try a daikon radish. If I can find seed.........

[imafan26]

Kitazawa seed is a good source for Asian vegetables. Minowase long daikon is the longest and fattest. The Chinese white ice daikon has more bite if you like that, it is harder and it only grows to the size of a medium carrot. It is good for pickling since it will retain its' crunch better than minowase.

Some peppers and eggplant require really warm temperatures that are closer to 80 degrees to germinate well. They can be slow to grow in the cold. Some harder to germinate ones can be coaxed with potassium nitrate seed treatment. It helps to break down the seed coat and imitates what happens when the seeds pass through the birds gut. Of course, you could feed the seeds to the birds and take a chance on finding a pepper seedling later.

The beets, carrots, and spinach I planted are really taking their time growing. I am not used to that. But since the snails are apparently asleep, the seedlings are still standing. The kaffir lime and calamondin have fruit. It is unusual for the kaffir lime, but the calamondin I guess is over its' resting period as it is back in overdrive again.

It has not been raining as much at least for the rainy season. I might try growing Suyo cucumber again. It is more tolerant of mildew and as long as the snails leave it alone, it might have a chance to grow up. I have a bucket left. It is not in a good position, but I might move it and grow snow peas again.

It looks like the lettuce transplants all made it. I have a few extra seedlings I will have to find places for.

[jal_ut]

"hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev."

Gee and here I am at 5000 ft elevation. Its 31 degrees today and snowing. The only thing growing is ice. Have a great day!