Applestar’s 2019 Garden

[applestar]

Good to know! Thanks

[applestar]

... leaving more notes about that NOT Steelhead ...

...not a seed mix-up/migrated seedling either since Believe It or Not is a red


Based on the seed packet label, the seeds came from this fruit —
Subject: Applestar's 2017 Tomatoes (and peppers and eggplants)
Aug 14, 2017

This one is a segregate of "Steelhead" -- a cross between a strain of Brandywine and Ananas Noir. I can't remember what filial generation it's at. The breeder named it for the colors which reminded him of the fish.

Subject: Applestar's 2017 Tomatoes (and peppers and eggplants)
August 22, 2017

This one was named "Steelhead" by the breeder after the freshwater fish. Those of you who fish them might recognize the coloring. It's a segregating off-shoot from 2015 seeds and the original line has been advanced so the one I have may or may not be true to type and I might not be correct in calling it by the given name. It was bred from a cross between a Brandywine he has been saving seeds and selecting for desirable traits and Ananas Noir. I harvested the fruit a week ago.

What GORGEOUS tomato! Definitely tri-color -- green, red, yellow. Yes, yes, I meant to eat this 2 days ago, but life intruded. So it did develop a (small) bad spot AFTER FULL 1 WEEK -- with scarring and mega-fused fruit like this, there are vulnerabilities -- but perfect fruit would have even better shelf life I think?




Surprisingly Sweet and Fresh are the two main descriptors that come to mind. Sometimes these qualities are lost when fruits are overripe. Started with Sweet front end -- tomato Sweet, nor sugary, and then not the heavy, salty deep flavor but Fresh and clean flavor with continuing Sweet and satisfying richness, then tangy lingering finish. I think this would please folks who prefer the brighter flavored tomatoes. My DD tomato taster said it was SWEET, NOT TOO STRONG, and VERY GOOD.

I would prefer to eat this one alone or in garden salads I think. Not too much other stuff to clutter up and mask the flavor.

[applestar]

TOP LEFT - VGA volunteer — definitely looking like a Korean melon/chamoe — it’s maybe 2 days to full ripe when the vertical white lines would be better defined. I think it slips from the vine, too, but will have to review.
TOP RIGHT - found another developing Kajari melon in the Spiral Garden

BOTTOM LEFT - I planted a started C.pepo plant under the mesh trellis between Latte Bicolor corn and Applestar’s #sweet# Medley corn, thinking it was a summer squash, and it stayed bushy and tried to set a round fruit, so I thought it was Ronde de Nice zucchini, but then it started to get SVB, which I tried to keep treating by spraying BT into the sawdust burrow hole...
— At some point, it fell over into the swale/path and then got beaten into the ground by a tropical storm remnant. I figured it was a lost cause and waited for it to start wilting, and tried to keep an eye out for immature fruits. But it was hard to get past the seriously vicious prickles, and it kept getting bigger until I realized it had started to run.
— At this point, I t’s taken over the entire swale/path — all 4-5 feet of the bed!
BOTTOM RIGHT ... And when I peered under all the leaves from all directions, mentally deriding it as being completely useless if no fruits, I found these two

** Can anyone tell me if this is Ronde de Nice? If it is, the bigger one is about baseball size — is it getting too big?

[applestar]

This year’s corn is a bust — it seemed like I was going to be able to harvest some intact fully ripe corn for fall decoration and seed saving, then they came back last night

I’m just going through the motions now. I’m just going through the motions now. I may still be able to save some viable seed corn after drying and sorting for unbroken/undamaged kernels, but it’s still discouraging.



...TOP-RIGHT — good side of the cobs

...in desperation, I cut down these three stalks with nearly ripe cobs to dry as entire plants in the house before removing the cobs. Hopefully, this will work.

[applestar]

On a happier note, the tomatoes are starting to avalanche into the kitchen. Many of the near-ripe big fruits had split all the way to the gel today, which means they will have to be eaten without fully ripening. (I actually had some in my omelette this morning — I think the incompletely ripened ones are best when cooked.)

I offered some to my next door neighbor since he was watering his garden on the other side of the fence, and he brought me the red colander — too many split ones today to give him big ones, but I did give him a nice assortment of cherry tomatoes and a nearly perfect looking Japanese cucumber.


...more big ones are blushing, so hopefully I can offer him some nice slicers and sandwich tomatoes soon...

[applestar]

A volunteer from VGA transplanted to VGB.PSRB (Vegetable Garden bed B Pallet-sided Raised Bed) because it had antho stems and foliage as seedling. The plant and fruits have all the characteristics of “Allons-y Dr.X”. It would have been F5 if started from seeds (I did start from seeds in spring but they were among the seedling failures this year), so this could also be an earlier filial generation.

- Beefsteak shape with pronounced fluting (maybe more than previously observed)
- Exterior appearance is Yellow/Pink bicolor with dusting of antho on shoulders
- Dusting/sprinkling of antho on shoulders — this fruit had good sun exposure with added reflected sunlight from the white fence, so this is probably about maximum expression.
- Clear epi
- Note the subdermal antho in the flesh
- Yellow flesh with minor bi-color interior, but this fruit had heat-stress pithy core extending more than halfway down from the stem end, so bicolor flesh may be more extensive in unstressed fruit



- Due to healed radial cracking, the fruit suffered a severe split that was not noticed until today, and it was still not fully ripe when cut open, so it had the raw fresh tomato front end, but had sweet undeveloped umami middle and lingering tang that combined for a “refreshing” and good flavor profile. “It’s still good! (even if not quite ripe)”

...hopefully that next fruit will become available for full flavor review


— eta — That white stuff in the blackened wound is baking soda. I stuff the split with it when it extends to the gel to prevent/stop mold from growing as soon as the fruits are brought inside, and try to eat them up by the end of the day since this kind of wound won’t heal like skin-deep split, and will proceed to mold and rot within a day or two. If not possible to eat right away, then I cut out the bad parts and freeze for cooking within the next week or so (damaged fruits are not good enough for long term preserving)

[applestar]

This is a volunteer growing on VGC front bamboo/string trellis. I was undecided whether it was Ernie’s Plump or Canestrino della Garfagnana (decided it was probably not Charlie Chaplin), but the cut open appearance and the dry hollow rather than meaty juicey seem to point more towards Canestrino della Garfagnana.

Also found a reference indicating Ernie’s Plump has jointless pedicels (fruit stems), and this plant definitely has jointed pedicels.

CANESTRINO DELLA GARFAGNANA
https://www.tomatofifou.com/boutique/to ... 258-detail

Variety native of the Province of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. Same Canestrino di Lucca but rarer and better!

Canestrino Della Garfagnana  
Aka Canestrino De Lucca
https://tomatprat.blogspot.com/2016/08/c ... gnana.html

Origin / History
This is an old heirloom tomato that has been grown for over 100 years in Garfagnana outside the city of Lucca, Italy.

[applestar]

Subject: Applestar’s 2019 Garden

Been following but haven't replied lately, everything is looking great and I don't know how the heck you keep track of everything.

I noticed I didn’t reply to this question. One of the methods I use is to take lots of pictures and review them, make collages, and mark up with labels — I have a bunch of unlabeled pictures from previous years that are useless now because I have no idea what they represent, unless they had been posted in a thread somewhere with relevant commentary.

I used to have a pretty accurate relational/mnemonic recall, but I guess I am getting older, and my memory is becoming Swiss cheese.... So I include near-by objects or background when framing the photos that help remember what, where, when. These extra/excess details are cropped out of the frame when assembling the collages later.

It’s always fun to see what’s been harvested at a glance, and the patio table slats give me a size reference. Sometimes I obsess and find myself (still) out in the hot sun arranging the “photo shoot”

I used to label the tomatoes in advance as I picked them, but now, I usually harvest in separate buckets and sometimes sub-containers, then group on the table by location. The “before harvest” photos gives me reference as well. Later, I make different collages of the photos and add labels for my own memory map/correlation, then use those photos as reference to label the fruits.

This way, when we taste them and/or save seeds, I know which one is which.

I don’t always post every collage or full set of photos, but here are most of the photos from today’s harvest.

I make use of the collages to group different views of the fruits, pre-harvest photos help to ID where they were grown and sometimes their plant characteristics. I can also pull up progress photos and identify the younger plant or green fruits based on current photo and make collages for specific variety or plant.

Sometimes, the relationship of the photos in the collages may or may not make obvious sense, but the process of making the collages etches the details in my memory better.

Today’s harvest arranged in quadrants and visually separated:


VGA, VGB, VGB.PSRB, VG.SIP-FR


VGC, VGD, VG.SIP-FL


HaybaleRow (HBR)


Individually, and group-labeled tomatoes waiting to ripen or to be processed for cooking and/or seed saving

[applestar]

OK we are now questing for ID to the VGC volunteer growing on the south spiral tomato support. It’s a sturdy tree-like vine with huge spreading leaves and loaded with beefsteak shaped fruits that ripened to gorgeous perfect tomato red. Rich ketchup like fragrance from UNCUT fruit when ripe, meaty, juicy beefsteak-locules when cut open, and sweet front end, bursting with middle umami, and lingering tangy rich tomato flavor. Regretting not taking a picture of the ripe double we tasted, but there are more fruits coming.

Our favorite red in the past was Neves Azorean Red — but last I grew it was in 2014, so that was a while ago. I grew it in response to unbridled praise for the variety here on the HG forum (and I’ve been meaning to grow it again). Still, TomatoFest description about the “large central stem” caught my eye —

Our TomatoFest organic tomato seeds produce indeterminate, regular-leaf tomato plants with a large central stem that have moderate to heavy yield of huge, 1-3 pound, deep-red, beefsteak tomatoes with terrific, bold, complex flavors.

That plant really does have an unusually sturdy-looking thick stem, as well as wide-spreading thick leaves on strong leaf stems.


BTW — It’s suffering from something that I don’t recognize, which causes these blackened dried up leaf edges. I’ve been cutting off an entire leaf once the condition seems to get worse, but the plant itself doesn’t seem to be affected by it? Let me know if you recognize the symptoms as something dire that I should be doing something else about?

[applestar]

We ate the Korean melon/Chamoe today since it was emitting an appetizing melon aroma this afternoon. It didn’t turn bright canary yellow with white longitudinal stripes, but I always suspected that the seeds I bought at the Korean supermarket, although simply labeled “Korean melon” was probably a F1 hybrid cultivar. So as long as this volunteer tasted sweet and yummy, which it did, I’m satisfied.

I would say the gel cavity wasn’t as juicy as the original, but the gel around the seeds and the placenta itself were sweet and tasty, not to be thrown away (which I had learned when I first researched it), and the flesh is “crunchy like an apple” not soft, and sweet and fruity/spicy, and tasty to the thin rind.

It naturally cuts into 10 wedges, so the children got 3 wedges and grownups got 2 wedges each. When I asked DD1 how she liked the melon, she said “Eh.” So I told her if she’s going to respond “Meh”, I’ll eat the LAST melon (wedge).” And she hastened to reply that she did NOT say “Meh” ... and that she didn’t know what I was expecting her to say, but they were good, sweet melon and it was HER “last melon”

DH made a point to say they were “REAL Good” ... and I haven’t heard from DD2 but she was busy alternately taking bites and spitting out the seeds. LOL

There’s another one, not quite as big so far, on the vine.

[applestar]

Time to “sling” the melons that are growing on the Spiral Garden trellis
- I use produce net bags and wire bales from Chinese take out containers.

...bottom left and center are watermelon and melon in VGC bed...
...bottom right is a volunteer squash growing in VGB bed...

[applestar]

8/7 harvest


8/9 harvest


...it’s time to process the tomatoes....

[SQWIB]

Awesome, everything is looking fantastic, and no splits on the tomatoes. Woohoo!

[applestar]

Thanks @SQWIB

[applestar]

Pink and Purple Mexican Corn update — VGB.PSRB (Vegetable Gardenbed B - Pallet-sided Raised Bed)

We had another gusty storm a couple of nights ago, and I tied them to each other a little higher up at about 5 feet since they were starting to lean and spread apart. After this, I will have to get a ladder.



...my neighbor expressed “amazement” about these corn, but in case he was concerned that they would fall over into his side, I’ll try to do what I can to keep them together and upright. Using the bungee helps in a storm — wind can push them over but the bungee will support them without creating a kink in the stalk that may cause them to break and help them spring back. I may have to put another one up higher. Tying them to one another helps, too. Only other thing I can do is to keep them well watered.

I’m a bit worried that if I support them “too well” something big might climb up.... then it’s weight will bring the stalks down.

- One of the cucumber plants that were started at the left end of the VGB.PSRB decided to grow along the base of the corn and have managed to snake to the right in front of the corn all the way to the right edge of the bed, then when I turned it back, wrapped around to the back of the corn and up the skid panel lining the fence, then all the way back to the left end of the bed.
-- I no longer let vine crops climb up the corn — their foliage may interfere with pollination and their fruiting weight may bring the stalks down. And if the corn finishes before the vine crop, it’s impossible to remove the dying stalk that gets moldy in the fall rain.

- if you zoom in and look at the photo on the right, you might be able to see the aerial stem roots that normally might grow 6-8 inches up the stem growing almost 24 inches up the stem.

Corn Roots - eXtension
https://articles.extension.org/pages/14064/corn-roots

[...] nodal root system, which means that the roots originate at one of the lower stem nodes (“joints”) of the plant. There are usually fives nodes below the soil surface, and the bulk of the root system grows from these nodes. The roots that grow from nodes above the soil surface are called “brace roots”, based on the observation that they appear to help brace the crop from falling over. Brace roots enter the soil some distance away from the stalk

...the article mentioned that if brace roots grow from more than two nodes, there is a problem and sugar is accumulating in the bottom of the stem, but I wonder if brace roots two feet up might not be the norm for such a tall plant? maybe I should have “hilled” more.... (25 inches worth?) Also, it’s possible that falling over in hurricane and tropical storm gale-force winds is normal for this corn and then they stand back up, rooting into the ground and bracing on those roots.


They stand at about 3 times my height
~~~~ CAN YOU PICTURE A FIELD OF THIS CORN? ~~~~~


....DEFINITELY worth growing, even if I don’t get filled cobs in harvest....

[applestar]

Today is my gardening rest-day, but I’m on groundHOG watch at an upstairs window this morning. I suspect it raided my garden two days ago, and it came back THREE TIMES yesterday

First time was within a one hour timeframe between when I finished gardening, came back inside and had breakfast. I had left a “surprise” over the wire fence surrounding the Brussels sprouts, where the beast had climbed to much on the leaves and upper stem (good thing I had already topped them and harvested the tender topmost leaves). The rock and rusty piece plant label wire had dropped — not sure but hope they hit it on its head! And the baker trays were askew or fallen.

I went out and “reset” those surprises and added a few more to other areas it had raided the day before. Then went upstairs with a cuppa, maybe a bathroom break, then wandered over to the window, and it was attacking the chicken wire fence surrounding the Kitchen Garden, trying to get at another planting of cabbages and Brussels sprouts. These are already pretty sorry looking from the moths and butterfly caterpillar predation, but no way I’m going to let the groundHOG have them when I haven’t decided what to do with them yet! I shook my water bottle/pebble rattle and banged on the window frame, and it ran off.

- I’m beginning to think it is watching and attacks as soon as the gardener/farmer goes inside, knowing no one will be coming back out for a while.

I checked frequently yesterday afternoon, and caught it one more time, halfway across the backyard, on its way to the Kichen Garden and the Patio.

This time, in addition to rattling at it from the window, I went downstairs and opened the door, and rattled with a rock in a big juice bottle which makes a deeper booming sound that should carry further and hopefully echo/bounce around the trees and structures.

...Sunrise was at 6:08am — no sign yet, but I think they tend to raid in the heat of the day...

[applestar]

The groundHOG was here while I had been caught up in making some tomato sauce. My “surprise” had been sprung and the basket trays were on the ground — one pot shard was inside the Brussels sprouts cage on the SIP mix surface, and the other one was broken on the brick patio outside the cage. But I can’t find the egg sized rock. Maybe it fell directly on the beast and got flung away

I put a bigger pot shard on top of the “surprise” in place of the rock, this time.

[applestar]

Set out more “surprises” for the groundHOG this morning.

I’m finally harvesting ripe peppers! Doux Long d’Antibes turned fully yellow. This is an extra sweet variety.

...in the same large pot in the Patio Kitchen Garden, there is a Pale Rider F6 — cream/white ripens to red — and a three year old Pasilla Bajio — very dark green ripens to dark chocolate. Purple leaves are Purple Petra Basil.

[applestar]

Made 3 pints of waterbath’d, hot packed tomatoes and 1 and 1/2 pints of polish dill pickles.

I realize that’s not much compared to those of you who regularly stock your pantries with jars of the garden’s bounty, but this is about my speed.

[applestar]

Main tomatoes used for hot pack waterbath jars

- Cow’s Tit (HBR-Right) — 4.7 oz. Shoulders and upper 1/3 or so would not catch up to the blossom end as the fruits ripened. Waited as long as I could. ...less bright red flesh inside than the VGC volunteer Very good umami flavor, dry/paste and stingy with seeds.
- VGC front right volunteer piriform with jointed pedicel (Canestrino della Garfagnana or Charlie Chaplin — less pleated than VGC back right... looks similar to VGA volunteer — 8.1 oz. Intense red and intense sweet/umami flavor. Very good.
- Pennheart (HBR) — 4.1 oz. — this was a bit watery but did have good flavor profile.



— also used the Shimofuri plant VG.SIP-FL fruits which were bland and less flavorful when eaten fresh, as well as a few others.

... harvested more today


— Cow’s Tit (HBR-L) would not subscribe to its nomenclature and presented with longer narrower horn-shaped fruits — they look more like red peppers

...first NOT Opalka ripened. They are very productive but wrong size/shape fruits. Don’t they look kind of like San Marzano? May be mislabeled seed packet.
...have to weigh and measure that NOT Homer Fike’s Yellow Oxheart — it might be the biggest tomato this season.

[applestar]

It rained yesterday, and although only 1/4-1/2 inch depending on local weather underground stations, a good number of susceptible cherry tomatoes split.




FINALLY! A developing cob/silk on one of the Pink and Purple Mexican corn

[applestar]

Spiral Garden Melons update — 7 are now hanging in slings, and one on the ground somewhat protected with a wire hanging basket — I pre-germinated mixed seeds of these new varieties (and some old seeds) and planted what sprouted.

Baker Creek -
- Collective Farm Woman Melon
- Ha'ogen Melon
- Jubilee Watermelon
- Kajari Melon

Fedco
- Montreal Market



- watermelons are likely Jubilee
- 2 small green and white striped melons must be Kajari (there’s another one growing in VGC)
- even toned, smooth round one is probably Collective Farm Woman
- Not sure how to tell the difference between Ha’ogen and Montreal Market.... I think Ha’ogen is not netted and Montreal Market is netted? So maybe the one under the wire hanging basket is Ha’ogen?

...anyone grow these varieties before? Can you tell?

[applestar]

Melon under the hanging wire basket — there are fissures starting to form, and, in the past, I have noted they spread and turn into netting on cantaloupe-type melons... Stem attachment looks tight so far.

[TomatoNut95]

Beautiful melon! Wish I could grow them.

[applestar]

It’s a struggle to grow them here primarily because it doesn’t get hot enough and it doesn’t rain enough in the critical beginning/fruiting growth period, 2ndarily I think because I don’t feed them enough.

I’ve finally improved my methods to manage maybe 1/2 dozen FRUITS each year now. But they are still not reaching their potential sizes, let alone numbers. So far, Korean melon has been the only variety that I could say I’ve succeeded in growing... but this year, I didn’t plant any ... except one volunteer happened to grow and give me two fruits (they are supposed to be able to produce 8-12 fruits per vine.)


...I think I’ve tentatively identified this year’s fruits — I labeled the same photo collage from before... (there are maybe another 4-6 baby fruits on the vines, but it’s doubtful that they will grow to maturity,)

[applestar]

OK... WHAT pest pulls off all pepper fruits - ripe to tiny green - from the plants without disturbing the leaves?
— With the leaves not eaten, and delicate harvesting job, it couldn’t have been the groundHOG.

I found my Aji Dulce Amarillo completely stripped of all fruits ripe to tiny green — they were mostly undamaged whole — some claw scratches and maybe a fang mark or two, except for 3 fruits that had a bite taken from them. The fruits were strewn around — some bobbing in the gravel bog where I’m growing some pepper plants in sub-irrigated containers. DK Snacker was also stripped of fruits and as far as I know, mostly uneaten — I don’t know how many fruits were on the plant.

Neither are hot peppers but Aji Dulce Amarillo has that distinctive very strong floral aroma. Does DK Snacker also have an aroma?


...I ended up picking these Pale Rider and Doux Long d’Antibes “green” — I’d rather eat them unripe than let them be raided. (Their plants were somewhat stressed and slow going, so this will probably help them set more fruits anyway)
...Bolivian Rainbow (Purple unripe fruits) was completely untouched

[applestar]

...starting to think about Fall Garden now — with 70’s high and low 60’s low today-Wed, then 80’s/60’s for another 5 days at least, plus the 1.5 inches of overnight rain saturating the ground, I tried sowing

- Emerald Archer peas, Chanteney Red Core carrots (old seeds, though so germination is iffy to begin with), and Anuenue lettuce in the VG.SIP following the determinate variegated tomatoes
- Super Sugar Snaps peas and Swiss Chard along the back of SFH following the corn and interplanting with the still producing edamame

- on Monday, I already Sowed Takane Ruby buckwheat and carrots in two of the SFH beds following Luther Hill and Applestar’s #sweet# Medley corn (which as I reported did not do well due to weather, European corn earworms, and raccoons). Buckwheat are already up.
- Third bed that had Latte bicolor corn has been taken over by this squash — a C.pepo that I think is Ronde de Nice and should have been picked as a 3-4 inch summer squash. Since I missed the harvest window, I’m just going to let this single fruit completely ripen into a pumpkin for fall decoration and seed harvesting.

[applestar]

BIL had harvested these beautiful Homerfiker’s Yellow Oxheart as well as Pineapple Pig (ivory colored striped beefsteak) grown in his garden from plants I gave him, and sent me a photo on August 15.

I had two plants of Homerfiker’s growing, but first to fruit developed large beefsteak shaped fruits that were obviously NOT Homerfiker’s Yellow Oxheart. Largest of the NOT fruits which actually ripened “brown” -correct color was not captured in the photo- is shown in the collage below (approx. 5 in. across, 13.6 oz). It was gorgeous, perfect, meaty multi-locule beefsteak, but the flavor profile was weak even at this full ripe stage (especially since it was being compared to a suspected Neve’s Azorian Red). I saved seeds anyway and will try growing it again in the future since I don’t know what this is — it could have been a seed mix up, mislabeled, or an accidental bee-cross.

I was disappointed and asked BIL to save me seeds from his. BUT! I was thrilled to realize that my plant #2 has loaded up with large green oxhearts. Hopefully, these will develop into correct type for the variety.



I had to ask BIL to save seeds from the Pineapple Pig as well — none of my THREE plants are not growing well . He had never saved tomato seeds before, but he said the WHITE fruits surprised him with delicious flavor and was enthusiastic about saving the seeds so I could give him plants to grow again next year.

[applestar]

First of Monomakh’s Hat from a heavy truss of large fruits, growing in KG.SIP#1. It’s a shorter plant. Supposed to be indeterminate but last time I grew it, it croaked after producing 2 heavy trusses of large fruits and one smaller sized truss of fruits.



...

I had to pick these two Kajari melons on 8/19 because the vines they were growing on had died and dried up. The one on the left was a little more developed than the one on the right, and on 8/24, it had changed color and developed a strong fragrance in the among the other fruits (peaches and pears) ripening in an open paper bag lined with pressed pulp beverage carrier and paper towel.


Since it also had a soft spot due to incomplete pollination, I cut it up on Saturday. It smelled wonderful, but had no real sugars to speak of. I ended up sprinkling the cut pieces with vanilla sugar and serving in a syrup with ripe peaches and peach juice.

I doubt that the dark green striped fruit will ripen, but hopefully another, most developed one out in the VGC will give us a taste of what this melon should be like, and there are a couple more babies on the Spiral Garden trellis that may still manage to grow to full maturity.

[applestar]

The Pink and Purple Mexican — I have to crane my neck to see if anything is going on up there

First cob I spotted is starting to silk. There was a 2nd cob developing on Sunday, but I almost didn’t recognize it because it looks more like a sucker shoot

[applestar]

Here’ is the damaged (probably) Montreal Market melon I had to harvest two days ago.

— I cut away the one large and 2 small decayed spots with clean knife, hit the spots with, and covered with vodka soaked paper towel and a cling wrap, then put it in this “fruit ripening station” — a heavy paper bag with paper towel- lined pressed pulp beverage carrier on the bottom, which sits on an ottoman in front of an oscillating fan.

I was not really going to count on it ripening off the vine and did NOT expect it to turn yellow in just two days. Now, according to Annapolis Seeds description, it is over-ripe.....

Montreal Melon - Annapolis Seeds
https://www.annapolisseeds.com/Montreal-Melon-p/419.htm

I put it in the refrigerator when I noticed around 3pm. We’ll eat it after dinner.

[applestar]

Emerald Archer peas have come up very nicely here in the VG.SIP, along with some lettuce:



...over in the Sunflower House, Takane Ruby buckwheat, carrots, Swiss chard, and Super Sugar Snaps are up, although the pea germination was spotty.

I’m thinking of sowing barley in the section of HaybaleRow Row where the fingering potatoes have been harvested....

[TomatoNut95]

Carrots? You've already started carrots? I wonder if I should start mine, but it's been too hot.

[applestar]

Don’t forget I will see first frost around mid-late October and hard FREEZE by December. The ground freezes too deep here for any carrot to overwinter in edible state, although the winter damage doesn’t kill them and they can grow and bloom in their biennial year from what is left of the roots.

[SQWIB]

looking good as usual, did you get those critters in check?
I was going to try Kajari Melons in place of cantaloupe next year, whats your opinion on the Kajari compared to a cantaloupe?
I grew some Cantaloupe this year and it had a great texture and that distinct cantaloupe taste but was not sweet at all. My second one was a tad better.

[applestar]

Hey, I commented in your garden thread about the powdery mildew and defoliation/chlorophyll energy factory sabotage robbing the sugar content potential from the melon fruits. Because of this realization, my strategy of cutting off the offending infected leaves is not working either. After spraying, the water-soaked/spotted leaves were burned I think due to pre-existing blemish/wounded leaf surface not being able to withstand the fungicidal mixture. I cut them all off, then traced out the vines and pruned the excess, already leafless vines that would have been pruned off anyway according to the melon pruning guide I’m going to try to follow next year.

I’ll get back to you on Kajari. It’s as susceptible to powdery mildew as the rest. The vines are dying before the one melon fruit they bore appear to be ripe, and/or they actually slip but seem to be due to moldy stem attachment. I have the fruits in the fridge but haven’t tasted any since the first one.

I think Ha’ogen and Collective Farm Woman might be showing better resistance. I may have to add a resistant hybrid next year for proper comparison.

[applestar]

Recent harvest from 8/25 ~ 9/5





...we’re really enjoying the Chicago Hardy figs. I topped all of the branches at about 6 feet this year, instead of letting them grow to heights that I can;t harvest easily anyway. And they seem to be ripening better. Last year, I lost at least a dozen fruits that refused to ripen before frost.

I was hoping to see some White Marseilles figs but they are growing very slowly. I see evidence of what imafan26 mentioned before — these must have been rooted from lateral branches — they keep growing masses of sideways-growing branches. I think I will selectively prune to limit the number of branches and see if they will attempt to produce fruits next year. Petit Nigra figs in containers have small fruits on them that have turned darker, but have not started to increase in size and finish the ripening process. I fertilized them in case they needed a boost.

[applestar]

Ate the Jubilee watermelon today — it was less red than it should have been and not as sweet as I had hoped although it was sweet. It was still good to eat, but I need to be able to grow about 1/2 dozen at once so I can harvest them without worrying so much about getting it wrong. That will be my challenge next year.
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- This Ha’ogen looked ripe from the window yesterday — I needed to tug a little more firmly than I expected, but it did “slip” — and blasted me with gorgeous melon aroma as soon as the stem came off. Hopefully this will not be a dud like others so far. The opening in the net bag was too small to slip it out — I had to cut it wider.

- I also harvested the runty Collective Farm Woman since it’s vine had dried up. There is another one that is slightly smaller than this Ha’ogen on the trellis to be picked another day.

- I had to harvest the first to ripen butternut squash — there was a bore-hole and clear frass/squash gel. I’ll cut it open and examine/process it in a little bit. This perfectly round hole makes me think the culprit might be a pickle/melon worm.

- apples, figs, grapes, raspberries

- one of the volunteer antho fruited tomato plant is definitely producing fruits that are almost completely “black" ... I’ll save seeds from this line separately.

[applestar]

Although most of the NE side garden do not get any direct sun during the colder months, I decided to set up and plant some fall-winter-spring crops here. At least I can keep an eye on this area from the upstairs window.... VG garden beds are on the other side of the garage, and -typical of these cookie cutter development houses- there are limited observation vantage — on that side, only windows are the two from the family room that don’t afford much of a view.


So far, I’ve have started Takane Ruby Buckwheat (May or may not be able to mature by frost), carrots, Swiss Chard, Super Sugarsnap peas; and today, dry-sowedseeds for barley, onions, broccoli, kohlrabi, spinach, turnips, radish, more Swiss chard....


...I’m gathering all of my pvc and metal hoops, and hopefully will be able to set up some season extending protection for them as needed (but not necessary for at least another week+ = 80’s/60’s )

[applestar]

I ended up not having the time to deal with that butternut squash with a bore hole in it, so I put it in the meat bin of the refrigerator on the side that doesn’t freeze (we have the drawer set so the side with freezer vent will semi-freeze). I finally got the chance to use it for supper today, and it turned out to be immature — the seeds and seed hulls were soft. I followed the bore hole which dead-ended after about 1 inch, but didn’t find the culprit. Either it was tiny and I mangled it when I accidentally cut across the hole at one point, or it got cold in the meat bin and it crawled out of the squash — I might find it in there somewhere.

What’s great about nominally "winter" squash is that they are actually good to eat at any stage — I think “summer” squash are probably just varieties that won’t achieve eating quality as mature squash. And when immature, you can eat them whole, rind and seeds and all, especially if you don’t use any questionable chemicals (I never eat the rind on store-bought squash — always peel them or when baking/roasting halved/cut up, thoroughly scrub the rind with veg wash/soap first)

I cut this one in disks, then each disk in quarters, immature seeds and all, and fried them in oil/fat left from making lamb burgers in the skillet. Seasoned with Japanese S&B curry powder and garam masala from an Indian grocery store, minced slice of freshly harvested ginger, and sea salt, then cooked until caramelized on the surface and cooked through (they were starting to melt) so yummy. I actually spooned some of the now super flavorful fat over the steamed rice for extra guilty burst of goodness.