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applestar
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Re: Applestar’s 2018 Garden

Korean Melon/chamoe is a definite. Early and very productive and seems to do fine without needing to set additional roots along the vine. I’m also thinking of trying a similar type Japanese hybrid called “Ginkaku” from Kitazawa seeds next year.

I wouldn’t plant melon on the trellis off the eating area because they DO get powdery mildew as well as cucumber beetles, stink bugs/leaf foots, etc and become unsightly. Have you considered runner beans? Hummingbirds love the blossoms. There are different flower color varieties, but so far, out of 4 varieties I’ve tried Scarlet runner beans are good eating as immature green beans as well as mature dry beans. (It *might* have been “Scarlet Emperor”.... I want to try one other kind that has HUGE BEANS... can’t remember the name right now — starts with a “W”.


I really think you should try different kinds of cukes. Buy them from the store or farmers market at first. I don’t really like the American standard variety - big fat green ones. I prefer Japanese kinds but make sure they’re not the ones that get bitter (once tried an heirloom variety that was so bitter it was inedible). American pickler varieties that have thinner skins are good. Tried Beit Alpha but it wasn’t as good according to DD. I have saved seeds from Japanese variety Shintokiwa which apparently got bee-crossed with Pickarow, and it has been a hit with DD. ...trying to decide if I want to try Mexican Sour Gherkins — some people say they are really sour and kind of like eating pickles... others say don’t bother.

...this one was hiding and is a bit overgrown...
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applestar
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Oh! In 2014, I grew Baker’s Creek’s 2013 bonus seeds of Ananas d’Amerique a Chair Vert melons and they did well on a nylon netting trellis:
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Thank you, you are always such a great help.

I am going to try the Scarlet runner beans, I was sold on two facts, attract humming birds and make great dried beans.
I'm going to do cantaloupe on the trellis under the deck, butternut squash on the trellis that was for spaghetti squash and the trellis by the playhouse may be converted to a mini raised bed for three or 4 okra plants, what do you think?

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Our two kitties were dispatched on Garden Patrol again today while I concentrated on harvesting :D

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...that brown bell pepper is a “Chocolate Cake” — a bit smaller than it should be...

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I went a little bit crazy yesterday taking pictures of tiny squashes and melons I hadn’t noted before... :roll: :lol:

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- Top-left female is the first one for Greek Sweet Red squash — part of my hunt for a tasty, dessert C. moschata that is early enough for this area. I’m concerned that it looked yellowish and may drop, but at least it’s starting.
- 2nd from left is Tatume, which is supposed to be harvested immature as summer squash, so I’m trying to figure out when to pick it.
- the hairy melons might be Rocky Ford and if it is elongated and develops splotches, then Sweet Freckles, I think. I didn’t spot any, but I’m supposed to be growing Snow Leopard in there somewhere, too. The watermelon would be Sugar Baby.

...if I get the chance, I want to fertilize these tomorrow, or the day after otherwise.

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Last year, some blasted chipmunks decided to eat every bit of green tree fruits from my Espalier Fence Row, pears, apples, persimmons. Then they started on barely blushed green tomatoes and I finally had enough. :twisted: (With tree fruits, you expect a fair amount of “June drop” and I didn’t realize their predation in time. :? )

This year, the weather played havoc with the pear and I had absolutely no pears at all except for 2 precious fruits on Seckel tree that is not pictured here. But the neglected branches of Prok persimmon and Arkansas Black apple are loaded :D

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...unfortunately, however, the Enterprise apples on the opposite side of the house were raided as green fruits by idiot raccoons who sampled every one they could get their hands on every night without ever accepting that they are simply not ready to be eaten in July :evil: I was able to keep 4 Enterprise fruits out of their grabby little opposable thumbed paws. They plied open the fruit boxes until I realized I had to tie them closed with a strong rope. :x I put a few empty boxes back up on the branches as decoy, which were often back on the ground next morning :lol:

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Update:

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See here if you’d like to compare with the beginning of the season

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Apple Guild bed (narrow bed just outside of the Enterprise apple tree dripline and fence) — this year, planted with continuing segregations of Thai Kang Kob x (Seminole x Tronboncino) —

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...I caged that one squash because it was just laying there as if it were an offering on the black locust fencepost edging.

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- VGB - Vegetable Garden Bed B (2 ft x 4 ft with nylon netting trellis on a bamboo frame)
* Shintokiwa cross cucumbers — 3 beautiful cute so far, more forming
* H-19 Littleleaf cucumbers — have not seen any fruits let alon blossoms — maybe overcome by powdery mildew
* Korean melon (harvested half doz. small fruits — I Think these are done)
* Goldmarie yellow wax pole beans — just started to produce last week
* Hyacinth bean Priya — just harvested first pod

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- VGB PSRB (Pallet sided Raised Bed)
* one Orange Glo watermelon developing
...hoping for more but not sure if there are enough hot days/warm nights left in the season...
* nasturtiums are taking over....

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SQWIB wrote:Thank you, you are always such a great help.

I am going to try the Scarlet runner beans, I was sold on two facts, attract humming birds and make great dried beans.
I'm going to do cantaloupe on the trellis under the deck, butternut squash on the trellis that was for spaghetti squash and the trellis by the playhouse may be converted to a mini raised bed for three or 4 okra plants, what do you think?
I planted 25 Scarlet runner beans this year only about 8 or 10 grew. Not as many flowers as usual this year. No humming birds this year either. 40 years ago I put chicken wire fence 8 ft high all the way around the patio Scarlet runner beans filled the whole fence it made a great privacy fence with 1000s of flowers & soil was really bad but plants did much better than what I have this year. I have never eaten the beans there never seems to be many beans, I save seeds to plant next year.
Last edited by Gary350 on Thu Aug 23, 2018 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

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I think hummingbirds help to pollinate the beans. I’ll post picture of the one that grew all the way up to the Bat House one year if I can find it. They had become so loaded with the beans that the vines slid down the 2 inch metal conduit post and solved the problem of how to harvest LOL

...found them...

Subject: Magic Bean Stalks are climbing up the bathouse pole!
Aug 10, 2014
applestar wrote:...actually they are scarlet runner beans :()
I'm going to have fun watching how far up they get... But I won't be able to pick the beans unless I get a ladder :lol: -- well maybe if I stand on the roof 8)

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Subject: Magic Bean Stalks are climbing up the bathouse pole!
August 27, 2014
applestar wrote:They reached the bathouse :D

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You can't see from this side, but the upper-most vine tendrils
are curling around and up the back of the bathouse
...hmmm something’s wrong with that 2nd image. I’ll figure it out later...
(thumbnail looks OK if you follow the link to the original post)

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- VGB - Vegetable Garden Bed B (2 ft x 4 ft with nylon netting trellis on a bamboo frame)
* Shintokiwa cross cucumbers — 3 beautiful fruits so far, more forming
* H-19 Littleleaf cucumbers — have not seen any fruits let alon blossoms — maybe overcome by powdery mildew
* Korean melon (harvested half doz. small fruits — I Think these are done)
* Goldmarie yellow wax pole beans — just started to produce last week
* Hyacinth bean Priya — just harvested first pod

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- VGB PSRB (Pallet sided Raised Bed)
* one Orange Glo watermelon developing
...hoping for more but not sure if there are enough hot days/warm nights left in the season...
* nasturtiums are taking over....

14th, 20th, 21st
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22nd
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- I noticed several prematurely red apples and, as suspected, these had apple brown rot (looks kind of like blossom end rot on tomatoes) so I picked them. They can be salvaged if caught early and immediately cut up into good parts. The initial fungal infection causes premature ripening before the “rot” and corky “dry rot” sets in.
- one was too green to eat fresh so I diced up the good portion and baked them into cornbread.

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Looking good, as usual.

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:() Thanks! :-()

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Volunteer snapdragon, actually growing between bricks of the patio (and being kept from falling over by those recycled OJ jug containers....)Huge because overflow from the thoroughly fertilized Patio SIP spills out here. The first seedpods are almost ready to snap... there are going to be lots of seeds :D

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Mrs. Aquillard’s Cushaw — the vines to and from the squash has turned brown and mushy. I think it’s time to harvest... but I’ll let it go a day or two more since it’s going to be dry this week. Hopefully that will help to dry out the dead vines and “cure” it? Or am I supposed to do something else?
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...I put a bucket and a plastic pot under the TKK squash hanging from the flimsy wire fence to support it.

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I planted what came up of the brassicas — only Gonzales and Red Express cabbages, and AspaBroc broccoli. I was bummed that none of the Igloo cauliflower sprouted. Too hot?

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— daikon are looking good. I hilled up soil around them since they were sprawling (the heavy insect screen might be shading them too much :? ) I will thin them a little later after they develop a little more. I planted the Gonzales cabbage on the near end of the tunnel where the carrots I sowed didn’t come up. Actually there is just ONE seedling that sprouted.... :roll:

...but that’s OK, another patch DID sprout. I was going to post the picture I took, but really you can hardly see the skinny carrot seedleaves ...I can see them because I know they are there but maybe you don’t need to see until they are more eye-catching :wink:

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...Hesitating to pick the watermelon. The one I’m looking at has the drying tendrils — but Only just looking like dried grass.grocery bag brown — I keep picking it up and turning over to look at the bottom — I Hear that should turn from pale to yellow... but mine is sitting on a brick and its bottom is not very pale, so it’s difficult to tell.

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I’m going to wait until the tendril has turned dark brown.black.

...if it means anything, the tendril one node further out on the vine (no fruit) has also dried up...

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Pleanted the remaining brassica seedlings —

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Harvest —
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...6-8 red noodles beans are not pictured because I put them in a bag right after rinsing to take to MIL’s

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applestar wrote:...Hesitating to pick the watermelon. The one I’m looking at has the drying tendrils — but Only just looking like dried grass.grocery bag brown — I keep picking it up and turning over to look at the bottom — I Hear that should turn from pale to yellow... but mine is sitting on a brick and its bottom is not very pale, so it’s difficult to tell.

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I’m going to wait until the tendril has turned dark brown.black.

...if it means anything, the tendril one node further out on the vine (no fruit) has also dried up...
Lack of sunlight makes the bottom color white but when it is ripe the white color turns yellow. Don't wait too long if melon gets over ripe it looses its flavor about 3 days of yellow bottom is about right. I often put a cement block under my melons cover the top of the block with soil then set the melon in the soil. Wiggle melon a little bit so melon sinks down into the soil so it has a 5" diameter dark spot on the bottom that will turn white then yellow. If your soil is not wet then you don't need to worry about melon rot. You can also mounted up the soil like a volcano set the melon on top of it. If soil does not have enough calcium melons get BER. Your melon is looking good I hope it turns out good.

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Thanks Gary350 — I’ll see how it looks tomorrow, and see if it would make sense to try to get the bottom to turn lighter at this point. Even if not, I will definitely apply your idea for other melons Image

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Guess what we just had? :D

THIS watermelon I harvested last Thursday on August 30. I was still concerned that I didn’t wait long enough, so put it on a tea towel lined cookie cooling rack on an ottoman in front of an oscillating fan we run all day to circulate the air conditioned cool air better.

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I started noticing 2 days ago, and DH commented yesterday, that the melon was starting to shrivel. I took that to mean the melon had made last ditch effort to suck what nutrients and/or water it could from the rind to ripen (the seeds), so I declared that we are eating it today. ...and we did. :> It was DELICIOUSLY sweet and we were dripping juice everywhere. Four of us ate until we were all full, and we still have another 1/2 left of the 13 Lbs. (weighed just before cutting) fruit. :()

The variety is Orange Glo from Baker’s Creek. It is supposed to be oblong, so this one was technically a runt.

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Tomatoes didn’t do very well this year, but with the Spiral Garden, Kitchen Garden, Sunflower & House, and Vegetable Garden C beds all or partially planted with tomatoes, there have been enough harvest to eat fresh and make juice and sauce as needed. Some are in the freezer as well.

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As always, planting a varied selection of vegetables balances the harvest and sense of accomplishment.

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Growing a garden from year to year also means interesting volunteers can pop up. I tend to let them grow when possible because I like the surprise. This one is a complete mystery

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Great harvest.

I noticed that some of your tomatoes are not quite ripe. I'm finding here in the U.P. that I'm having to pick tomatoes not quite ripe also. They just seem to sit there on the vine and are agonizingly slow to ripen. So, I take some inside and they go faster on the windowsill. I think it allows the plant to put more into the ones remaining on the vine too.

In Arizona, I never had to do this! Everything seemed to go faster.

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I was out of commission for a couple of weeks, first due to Hayfever and allergies weakening defenses and letting a virus in, then an injury kept me inside for about 4 days.

The gardener’s absence is noticed. I realized yesterday afternoon that a groundHOG had eaten my two remaining red cabbages and kale, and trampled/chewed up the container sugar snaps in the Patio SIP. Later on, it came back and I scared it off by banging on the window. But the situation is pretty hopeless. I was really disappointed because I was feeling like I would be well enough to go out and play in the garden again the next day ....today.

I took a picture out of the window and then again today when I went outside.

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There was a lot to harvest after so many days. Some things should have been harvested days ago and were spoiled. There were evidence of something (probably chipmunks) raiding the apples. Several sock puppet apples were on the ground. Two had been taken out of the socks and chewed up. One was almost all eaten up. One of the two Seckel pears was missing, and one overripe persimmon was on the ground.

One ripe persimmon was way up high on the branch, so I fashioned a “picker” out of bamboo, wire, haystring, and a cup. When I returned with it to pick the persimmon, I realized there was a monarch butterfly caught in a spiderweb, about 3 feet from the persimmon and equally high up. I used the bamboo end of the “picker” to free the butterfly, and it was able to fly up and away — YAY :clap:

After that little “good deed”, the persimmon fell right into the cup of my picker when I poked at it. Image

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...maybe it’s the 3+ inches of rain we had in the last week — the Figs had ripened and started to explode. I had to throw out about 5 of them between the potted Petit Nigra and the in-ground Chicago Hardy. More than half of each cluster of raspberries were moldy or were spoiled from grey mold.

...many of the sweet peppers had over-ripened or had been invaded by pepper maggots or maybe hornworms or cutworms and had holes.

...I let our two indoor kitties out with me today for their supervised outing which they hadn’t been getting while I couldn’t go outside. One of them caught a chipmunk on the patio and the two of them finished it off together — maybe it’s the same one that had been raiding the fruit trees.

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I'm sorry for your health problems and sorry for the pest damage to your garden. That's quite a flavorful harvest, though. Best gotten while the getting is good!

I suppose that your kitties have better sense than to go after the groundhog. Groundhog - Marmota monax. Marmot - Marmota caligata. The neighbor's dachshund went after a marmot and required a visit to the vet emergency clinic.

Marmots seem to take some time to learn what garden vegetables they should eat. Once, they completely girdled each of my cabbage plants ..!

Steve

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Thanks, digitS. I am feeling better, so hopefully no more health issues for a while.

I think groundHOG is too big for the kitties to consider messing with, but when I was lamenting over the raspberries, I smelled a “skunky” odor. It wasn’t strong and it could have been a roadkill skunk’s last futile burst that wafted in.... HOWEVER, I learned a while ago that groundHOG also emits a similar but less pronounced musky smell, and I became concerned that it had come into the backyard where the kitties were, so I hurried back to the patio and whistled for the kitties to return (yes, I told you I treat them like dogs — I expect them to come to me when I whistle).

One showed up right away and meowed to be let in by the back door, but the 2nd one wasn’t as responsive. So I let the first one in, gave her the treats after she gave up her bandanna collar (she is expected to return to the backdoor after running inside, sit, and wait for me to remove her collar. At which point, I give her a couple of treats I keep by the back door.).

I then went back outside and whistled a couple more times — the 2nd kitty came running around the corner. Apparently, she was hunting along the foundation shrubbery — either she scented back along the route the chipmunk had traveled to the patio, or maybe there are more, or else she was going after a mole.... Once back on the patio, she was as good as the first kitty. They have the routine down pat. :wink:

With the kitties secure, I looked around for any sign of the groundHOG. I didn’t see any... except that the dead chipmunk which the kitties had left on the patio was gone. One of them had hacked up grass/hairball on top of the carcass, so I really don’t think they were the ones that touched it. But who knows.... :|

...Who, us?...
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I was tickled to spot this while playing with some apps. To be honest, my Spiral Garden doesn’t look this good right now, but they captured it when it was looking particularly well-defined. Heh. I’d better work on re-furbishing it before they decide to update the image for my area. :>

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Yesterday morning dawned foggy — perfect for taking photos of all of the large spider webs I could find. They are mostly 3 to 4 feet or more across. The only exception is the one with pink ribbon — that one is a tiny web, maybe two inches across.

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Image

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9/16/18 harvest
Liebesapfel pepper ... thinned daikon (chopped up the leaves and immature roots and refrigerator pickled with sliced cucumbers, sea salt, and salted rice koji, and a whole Sun Thai pepper)
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...a silly Korean Melon got caught in the chickenwire
...needed some ginger root for a recipe...

9/17/18 harvest
Some of the Arkansas Black apples are starting to come in — these apples are going straight into the fridge to mellow out and develop flavors until next month. The blemished ones are already ripe enough for good eating as fresh spicy/tart apples or for baking.
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Wire colander of herbs — rosemary, sage, stevia, lemon verbena, lemon balm

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My persimmon picker is working perfectly — I maneuver the fruit through the wire loop, hook the wire just above or below the calyx and pull. The ripe ones that are ready to be harvested drops right into the cup. Ones that are not ready will not budge.

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applestar wrote:My persimmon picker is working perfectly — I maneuver the fruit through the wire loop, hook the wire just above or below the calyx and pull. The ripe ones that are ready to be harvested drops right into the cup. Ones that are not ready will not budge.

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Ripe persimmons are so good, my grandmother had a persimmon tree in the back yard. Persimmon jelly is the best, they make good wine too. If you make persimmon jelly use the cold method, if you put a persimmon in boiling water it gets hard as a wooden board & has about as much flavor at a wooden board. Put unripe persimmons in a cold refrigerator for 1 or 2 days they get riper & sweeter. Grandmother use to pack persimmons in a bowl of ice then keep it in the cold refrigerator 24 hrs all that bitter flavor was gone. Persimmons are not usually ripe on the tree until after first frost. There is a very large persimmon tree on college campus I use to go there in Nov with a 5 gallon bucket to pick up persimmons on the ground that was 18 years ago. Now you have me thinking about persimmons it makes we want to go see if that persimmon tree is still there. Grandmothers persimmons had several large seeds, campus tree has 1 flat seed sizes & shape of a dime.
Last edited by Gary350 on Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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I'm intrigued by your Ginger. This is my first year growing it and was wondering how you overwinter yours.
I was going to pot it up but don't have the room and then thought I may just store it in damp peat in the refrigerator in a coffee can with some holes in the lid.

Advice?

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I have tried keeping/saving harvested roots before, but either they dry out or they get green mold on them whether in the pantry or in the refrigerator. Imafan has mentioned she keeps them in sand outside where they are in regular rain/humid Hawaii winter environment.

For me, it’s easier to just leave them potted and harvest as needed. I have found that if I don’t bring them in before the night temperatures fall below mid-50’s, sooner or later they go dormant — leaves yellow then dry up, then they pull/fall off from the roots. I harvest some of the green leaves to use as herbs (culinary/tea) but allow most of them to remain, assuming the nutrients/energy is reabsorbed. The dry leaf smell terrific and I use them to extract fragrance for personal products like shampoo and soap.

They don’t need light while dormant and can be allowed to be barely damp/nearly dry, left in the back corner of the room — upstairs or downstairs. I have been told the roots are hardy to zone 9 and can take frost and some light freeze, but I don’t dare put them in the unheated garage where it can stay in low 20’s in the depth of winter when it’s in single digits and negative single digits outside.

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OK let me see if I got this right. I can leave them potted and bring them in and put in something like a garage, as long as it doesn't get too cold.
Do I wait to bring it in when the plant starts to yellow (lows of 50°F), pot it up and place in the garage? I'm guessing the potting mix should have some moisture so the root doesn't dry out?

I'm a bit confused.

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I haven’t been bringing them in until the last minute lately. It looks like 2013 was the last year I brought the ginger in early enough :arrow: Subject: Good thing I'm growing Ginger in a container this year
Later posts indicate I wait until well into October. I’m not as concerned since I have learned the green leaves turn yellow and die off no matter what I do.

I have a cavalier attitude about bringing in bugs into the house. The soil bugs mostly stay in their individual pots/microcosm and don’t bother anybody. Sowbugs/Rolliepollies, millipedes, occasional centipedes and spiders (welcome predators) are common as are slugs (eliminated as discovered) and earthworms (intentional). So I don’t repot the dormant ginger until I’m getting ready for spring, and sometimes not even then.

I let the well-draining potting mix dry on the surface, but water before completely dried out, keeping it on the dry side after leaves start to yellow and even drier after they have come off of the roots (They are like tulips after leaves start to dry, if you know what I mean). I harvest from the stem on/younger fingers for tender roots to be minced in, and from the older fingers for fibrous ones for juicing.

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@Gary350 — This is a variety called Prok. It’s one of the largest fruited true American persimmon from a Cornell University breeding program, that ripens sweet without the frost treatment. Another attribute of this variety is that it is self fertile and doesn’t require male and female trees.

When I was looking before, I only considered native American varieties — Prok or Yates — because they are winter hardier. There have been some new introduced Japanese and Korean varieties that are supposed to be hardier than Zone 7/borderline Zone 6 now. I might start looking into them.

I hadn’t considered that putting them in the refrigerator might remove some vestige of the astringency/chalky texture when they are unevenly ripened. I will try that. I also found a “recipe” for freezing them while, then eating them with a spoon like sorbet. If all goes well, I will have 6 or 7 fruits to harvest tomorrow, so I might try that. I gave three of the unblemished best ones to my parents in the senior home yesterday.

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I was wrong — there were 15 persimmons today (my DD just came in with the 15th one I missed but spotted from the window later)

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- I also picked some Trifoliate oranges. The sooty blotch cleans up with concentrated scrubbing with veg brush, especially after some of the oils are released and the skin smells fabulous.
- and I discovered myoga (Japanese ginger) has already started to bloom

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GroundHOG came back a couple more times to nibble on the cabbage and kale stalks. I was hoping to let the prominent buds along the sides grow and see if I could harvest some tender baby cabbage leaves for salad, but I gave up.

I tried sowing spinach, lettuce, arugula, and mixed in a bit of broccoli and kale seeds. I put up some half-hearted barricades but will hopefully manage to make a cage-cover this weekend. As long as the groundHOG doesn’t dig, for a few days, it won’t matter if it sits on the top of the SIP, and maybe it will give up.

R - I mixed up the seeds with some fertilized potting mix and water, and made a mud slurry, then scattered and lightly scratched in.

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L - I put the left over seed slurry in this Kitchen Garden bed where only one brassica seedling and a handful of beets and carrots came up (probably due to drought and heatwave).

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This Sweet Freckles melon had a damaged spot, so I had to put it in the refrigerator right away.
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But even in the fridge, the spot showed signs of deteriorating (this is usually a sign that the bad spot had penetrated the seed cavity and the fungal spore is trying to proliferate) so I cut it open and cut out all suspect portions, then scooped out with melonballer and sprinkled with sea salt and pure maple syrup to marinate for a few days.


DD and I had it this morning. It was sweet and fragrant. I saved the seeds so I will try to grow this again. Hopefully I will perfect my melon-growing techniques and/or this strain will adapt to the NJ garden climate which I am sure is very different from the Australian environment where the original seeds came from.

I hear it did well in a South Carolina garden, so it just wants more heat.



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