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applestar
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Re: Applestar's 2017 Garden

I've been planting the brassicas, etc. under protective cover:

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... One row of radishes in an exposed area ...

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Looking Good.
The picture bottom right, that isn't a Hugelkultur Mound is it?

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applestar
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That one is not. But I am redoing a section along another part of the garden enclosure fence that will be my new sorta-hugelkultur bed... maybe with pallet sides though I haven't decided about that. I intend to plant tomatoes or potatoes there next year.

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The Mexican Pink/Purple corn have FINALLY STARTED TO TASSLE. Those arch and melon trellises in the foreground are about 6 feet high, and I would estimate these corn must be about 14-15 feet tall. The somewhat "shorter" corn in front of them are my KKxGlass Gem x popcorn/field corn medley segregates that are showing similar "giant" growths as Bloody Butcher and I'm guessing 10-12 feeet tall. DD asked me how I am going to hand pollinate those.... :shock:

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xtron
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I grow tuckers favorite dent corn for grinding cornmeal and making masa herraina. it grows 12-14 feet tall, and is quite the point of interest in the neighborhood. come halloween, I usually have several requests for "those giant corn stalks" for decorations.

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applestar
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I'm starting to harvest fully mature Japanese Striped Maize.
Image Image

...actually didn't harvest the one in the bottom-left since I realized the leaf for that ear is still green and hasn't started to dry.

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applestar
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xtron wrote:I grow tuckers favorite dent corn for grinding cornmeal and making masa herraina. it grows 12-14 feet tall, and is quite the point of interest in the neighborhood. come halloween, I usually have several requests for "those giant corn stalks" for decorations.
I wish I had room to grow more -- not sure if I will be able to harvest filled ears at this rate. :roll: :roll:

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applestar
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Subject: Applestar's 2017 Garden
applestar wrote:Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:59 pm

I was tempted by this thread into sowing some Okra seeds. Both the Okra and the Butta summer squash have sprouted. :-()
Subject: Okra question
applestar wrote:Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:18 pm

I soaked and sowed some Clemson Spineless and Alabama Red, but it turned out my seeds are kind of old, so I'm not sure what kind of germination I will get. I sowed extra, extra, which should mean there will be more than enough, but we'll see.

I will have to get new seeds for next year, or if these germinate, save at least one plant for seed-making (sacrifice and allow first pod to mature to ensure pod will have the chance to fully mature before frost)....
...forgot to mention one of the volunteer squash I was letting grow had the telltale wet sawdust on its stem -- I dissected it to see and found 2 SVB's, so the summer squash may have no chance.
I've harvested two Butta squash so far and there are more developing:
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...Okra plants are still pretty small and with the onset of cooler late summer/pre-fall weather, not likely to do much at this point...

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applestar
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Random pics from the garden --

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rainbowgardener
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Everything is looking great!!!

Bottom right, are those your apples? They have the blotchy discolored look I was describing on mine. Is that normal?

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Yep. I have always had them on my unsprayed apples. I looked them up a while back and decided not to do anything -- I think this is the same info I referenced:
Secrets of Sooty Blotch and Flyspeck on Apples | News
https://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/ ... 061801.htm

Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) seems harmless enough – unless you are a commercial grower who wants to sell your apples as fresh fruit. Then SBFS becomes a disease problem, since it can prevent you from selling your apples.

Sooty blotch and flyspeck may be as old as apples themselves. Drawings of apple varieties from the 1820s clearly show sooty blotch on every fruit. It wasn’t until sprayed-on pesticides, such as lime sulfur and lead arsenate, became popular around 1900 that consumers began to expect to buy apples without a heavy coating of sooty blotch and flyspeck. The cosmetically perfect apples found in today’s supermarkets weren’t common until the middle of the 20th century, when more effective organic fungicides appeared.

The names “sooty blotch” and “flyspeck” describe what these fungi look like on apples. Sooty blotch, as the name implies, shows up as dark brown to black smudges. The blotches range in size from half-inch-diameter circles to smears that can cover half the apple surface. Some blotches are so faint they are barely visible.

Flyspeck also resembles its name. Groups of several to 50 or more, shiny black dots cover more or less circular areas, from less than 1/8 inch to more than an inch in diameter.
I have always thoroughly scrubbed the fruits at harvest -- sooty blotch comes right off with a bit of plain water soak and light scrub, but fly speck sometimes require extra scrubbing/elbow grease or a bit of soap -- I use Dr. Bronner's peppermint liquid soap -- but just this year, someone (not here) told me that apples store better if they are not washed or cleaned....

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I didn't post about it, but I harvested this muskmelon/cantaloupe -- possibly Honeyrock -- on 8/31 even though it hadn't slipped yet because of the dark black hole in the side -- it was deep enough to hold moisture and I was afraid bugs and critters would get into it from the hole. I washed it thoroughly as usual, then once in the house, I wrapped it in vodka soaked paper towels (soaking the vodka into the hole in the process, and then tightly sealed it in a produce bag to leave on the counter.

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Two days ago, I got anxious and cut it open. Fortunately, the hole -- anthracnose I think -- has not penetrated the inner flesh and it was incredibly gorgeous dark salmon color and had beautiful aroma. But it was just shy of full sweetness.

I cut the flesh off the rind, removed the seeds to ferment for saving, then cut it up into chunks -- they filled a 1 qt. Pyrex bowl. To compensate for the lack of sugar, I added 2 teaspoons of home made vanilla sugar and 1/4-1/2 tsp of sea salt, mixed well and put in the fridge to marinate. We have been eating them yesterday and today and they have been absolutely wonderful.

There are two more developing fruits out there on the trellis, one of them just starting to make fissures that I now know turn into the netting, but the vines are dying rapidly and I don't think we will see mature full-flavored fruits. Hopefully, I have saved the seeds correctly and I can try again next year.

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One variety of Melon I'm growing this year is saved seeds from Snow Leopard, which is a hybrid. I believe this one that grew under the old picnic bench is one of them. It has the color and markings of Snow Leopard, but was also starting to form fissures as is it was going to devdlopmnetting, and it "slipped" from the vine which I don't think Snow Leopard would have done since it's a kind of honeydew....?

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It smells lovely, but I think I will give it another couple of days on the counter before cutting into it.

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applestar wrote:The Mexican Pink/Purple corn have FINALLY STARTED TO TASSLE. Those arch and melon trellises in the foreground are about 6 feet high, and I would estimate these corn must be about 14-15 feet tall. The somewhat "shorter" corn in front of them are my KKxGlass Gem x popcorn/field corn medley segregates that are showing similar "giant" growths as Bloody Butcher and I'm guessing 10-12 feeet tall. DD asked me how I am going to hand pollinate those.... :shock:

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This is the view with me looking straight up:
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DH who hardly ever pays any attention to my garden has been glancing out of the upstairs window every time he passes it, and yesterday said for the nth time -- "WOW Those are BIG corn!" :lol:

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Image

Image

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Another view out of that window --- :()

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It's a jungle!

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Here's another Snow Leopard Melon F2 that turned out to be a winner. This one was fully ripened on the vine until I detected a delicious aroma, and pulling on it made it slip. It was allowed to ripen further on the counter until today -- it looked like a honeydew -smooth, no markings- but the flesh was a pale salmon color.

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Very sweet. Image

DDs loved it. DH who prefers honeydew and doesn't eat cantaloupe said it tasted like honeydew until the very end when there was a hint of cantaloupe.

Saving seeds. Image

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I cleaned up the Haybale Lane (HBL) -- this year's Melon patch #1 -- and sowed some fall-winter seeds. 2 kinds of turnips, kohlrabi 2 kinds of carrots, lettuce mix, root parsley, 2 kinds of onions, leeks,... etc. Planning to fashion a season extending cover later on.

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Tomatoes are dwindling but other interesting harvest items continue to come in :()

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I put together a special collage to keep track of which saved seedcorn came from which plant, even though I made notes on the wrapper. I'm especially excited by the Applestar Medley #sweet# x Japanese Striped Maize ear I harvested today. Image

Image

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It's really bumming me out that the question of how-to hand pollinate those Pink and Purple Mexican corn is becoming moot. I have been looking and looking, but see no sign of silks emerging, while the tassels have been maturing and dropping pollen. :?

HOWEVER, I did harvest some more fun corn for sorting and saving as seeds. The best part is that one of these Applestar's Medley #popcorn# and at least another one that's still green and will be harvested when ready have a small chance of having caught some of the Pink and Purple Mexican corn pollen. Image

Image

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Finally saw one with silks growing today, but look at where. I tied a raffia string at 5ft height on the stalk. :shock:

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CANNOT imagine walking in a whole field of this corn. Wow! :D
...chuckle with me if you remember my private joke about growing tall corn. :lol:

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Late planted large fruiting varieties of tomatoes haven been ripening. This is a first. Usually, by this time, only the cherry and maybe saladette size varieties will be left and they will keep going until frost. This year, a 2nd wave of seedlings was planted out later than usual.

I think I might have noticed this phenomenon last year, too, since I had started seeds over the course of 4 weeks or so... if it were not for the mites that decimated the later, weaker seedlings.

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The most recent large fruited varieties that are in the above photos -- in no particular order are -- The Witz, Amana Orange, Sergeant Pepper's, Allons-y Dr.X, TerhuneX, Mikhalych. All from VGB and VGB.PSRB beds. Also pictured are Dwarf Chocolate Lightning and the largest fruited Tim F2 from the KGP.SIP.

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One more Applestar's Medley #popcorn# that has been open/cross pollinated with Japanese Striped Maize and (hopefully) Pink/Purple Mexican :D

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...I discovered a recognizable characteristic of the Japanese Striped Maize kernels so I think I will be able to tell them apart. I'll post detailed photo(s) later to show the differences in the kernels. Earlier harvested #sweet# kernels are starting to dry up and turn into recognizably shriveled and shrunken kernels which I am going to continue to assume are the sweetcorn types.

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Amazing colors!! Not just the corn, but all those harvest pictures! :)

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Yes awesome colors Applestar's garden say, "It's FALL!"
Looking good

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:() :()

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I saw my saffron crocuses starting to send up flowerbuds in the Kitchen Garden yesterday. Really should have checked to see if they opened today.....

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Image

Pictured -

TOMATOES
  • Dwarf Chocolate Lightning
  • TerhuneX-1
  • TerhuneX-2
  • The Witz
  • Tim F2
PEPPERS
  • Aji Pineapple
  • Fish
  • Gochugaru yong Gochu
  • Golden Habanero
  • Maui Purple
  • Sun Thai
OTHERS
  • Bean pole, Borlotto
  • Corn, Applestar's Medley #popcorn# xJapanese Striped Maize, xPink and Purple Mexican
  • Fig, Chicago Hardy
  • Saffron

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applestar
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Playing with the new phone’s camera :-()

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Wow! Fabulous photos!

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:() thanks!

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I FINALLY had a chance to take some photos of my garden :()

I guess this would be my fall garden. I’m going to put hoop over everything to hopefully keep these greens going.
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Summer’s last hurrah’s including some really nice Chicago Hardy figs. It’s planted next to the SW-facing family room wall and I have the bottom part of the tree/shrub covered with an old nylon shower curtain, so I’m hoping more the green fruits it’s loaded with will have chance to ripen.

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...aaaaand... I have a fat corn cob growing on the Pink and Purple Mexican ! About 10-12 feet up Image

Image

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Gusts up to 40+mph knocked over my corn — wah! They did fall over the tomato support so didn’t fall all the way down and may not have been completely broken/severed....

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I left the corn exactly where they fell. I didn’t want to move the stalks and sever any of the remaining connected tissues. Now we have the remaining week of overnight lows in the low to mid 30’s°F, then a hard freeze — low 20’s° F — forecast for Sat. Morning.

I’m hoping the three ears on the Pink and Purple Mexican corn will have time to mature into viable seeds. I’m assuming I should harvest the ears before the hard freeze.

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Finally, FINALLY got the chance to plant the garlic —

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I FINALLY FINALLY got the chance to unwrap the Pink and Purple Mexican corn to see what I got —

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...first one I unwrapped was a dud, 2nd one only had the one kernel that looks immature. Another one had more but probably also immature. So only one spottily but successfully pollinated and matured cob, but enough for trying to grow again. Image

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These spent the winter under a tulle netting and doubled slitted 3 mil plastic, and look like this now:

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...I think this means if I can come up with better designed covering system that allows opening and closing during the winter instead of frozen to the ground, I would actually be able to harvest some and enjoy them.... :roll:



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